n 


TO 

JOHN  MACKEY,  ESQ., 

PRINCE  OF  MINERS, 

AND 

"Boss"  OF  THE  BIG  BONANZA, 

IS  THIS  BOOK 

RESPECTFULLY  INSCRIBED.      - 


248015 


HISTORY    OF 


THE  BIG  BONANZA: 


AS  AUTHENTIC  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  DISCOVERT,  HISTORY,  AND  WORKING  OF  TH1 


COMSTOCK  SILVER  LODE  OF  NEVADA 


INCLUDING   THK 


PRESENT  CONDITION  OF  THE  VARIOUS  MINES  SITUATED  THEREON  J 

SKETCHES    OF     THE    MOST    PROMINENT    MEN    INTERESTED    IN 

THEM  ;    INCIDENTS   AND   ADVENTURES   CONNECTED  WITH 

MINING,     THE     INDIANS,    AND     THE     COUNTRY; 

AMUSING    STORIES,     EXPERIENCES, 

ANECDOTES,     &C.,    &C. 

AND   A    FULL 

EXPOSITION  OF  THE  PRODUCTION  OF  PURE  SILVER 


BY 

DAN    DE  QUILLE. 

(WILLIAM  WEIGHT.) 


PROFUSELY    ILLUSTRATED* 


SOLD  tt    SU3SCB1*TI9H  O&Ltf. 


HARTFORD,  CONN. : 
AMERICAN   PUBLISHING  COMPANY. 

SAN   FRANCISCO,   CAL.  : 

A.    L.    BANCROFT    &   CO. 

1877. 


Entered  according  to  act  of  Congress,  in  year  1876    by 

AMERICAN  PUBLISHING  CO., 
in  toe  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress 


INTRODUCTORY. 


One  easily  gets  a  surface-knowledge  of  any  remote  country,  through  the 
writings  of  travellers.  The  inner  life  of  such  a  country  is  not  very  often 
presented  to  the  .reader.  The  outside  of  a  strange  house  is  interesting,  but 
the  people,  the  life,  and  the  furniture  inside,  are  far  more  so. 

Nevada  is  peculiarly  a  surface-known  country,  for  no  one  has  written  of 
that  land  who  had  lived  long  there  and  made  himself  competent  to  furnish 
an  inside  view  to  the  public.  I  think  the  present  volume  supplies  this  defect 
in  an  eminently  satisfactory  way.  The  writer  of  it  has  spent  sixteen  years  in 
the  heart  of  the  silver-mining  region,  as  one  of  the  editors  of  the  principal 
daily  newspaper  of  Nevada ;  he  is  thoroughly  acquainted  with  his  subject, 
and  wields  a  practised  pen.  He  is  a  gentleman  of  character  and  reliability. 
Certain  of  us  who  have  known  him  personally  during  half  a  generation  are 
well  able  to  testify  in  this  regard. 

MARK  TWAIN. 

HARTFORD,  May,  1876. 


PREFACE. 

I  have  put  all  I  had  to  say  into  the  body  of  this'book ;  but,  being  informed 
that  a  preface  is  a  necessary  evil,  I  have  written  this  one. 

THE  AUTHOR. 


OF 


PAGB. 

GOLD  HILL FBONTISPIECB 

1.  CONSOLIDATED  VIRGINIA  MIKE do 

2.  KIT  CARSON 21 

3.  "OLD  VIRGINIA"  AND  His  ROCKEK 28 

4.  THE  PRINCES  SARAH  WINNEMUCCA 80 

5.  JACOB  JOB'S  LITTLE  GAME 81 

£_  $>  GOLD  DIGGINS  IN  1859 44 

7.  COMSTOCK  DISCOVERING  BILVES 50 

8.  AN  ARASTRA 58 

9.  NAMING  VIRGINIA  CITY 58 

10.  EURBKA  MILLS,  CARSON  RIVER 67 

11.  COMSTOCK'S  AFFINITY 76 

12.  RETURN  OF  COMSTOCK'S  WIFE 76 

13.  H.  T.  P.  COMSTOCK 85 

14.  THE  HAPPY  BREAKFAST 92 

15.  O'RlLEY  AND  HIS  GUN 97 

16.  GUIDED  BY  SPIRITS 98 

17.  ENCOURAGED  BY  REVELATIONS 101 

18.  THE  LAST  BLAST 101 

19.  BOUND  FOR  WASHOE 103 

20.  D N  WASHOB 108 

21.  BUSINESS i05 

22.  GOOD  MORNING 107 

23.  GOING  IN 108 

24.  CHANGE  OF  MIND 108 

25.  COMING  BACK 108 

26.  BUSTIN'  THE  INJUNRTION 110 

27.  SAVAGES 126 

28.  TIMBERING  THE  MINES 137 

29.  '-HOLD  UP  YOUR  HANDS" 151 

30.  A  BONANZA  OF  BEEF 151 

31.  HOISTING  WORKS 165 

32.  THREE  FAMOUS  MIXES 167 

38.    WASTE  ROCK  DUMPS  OF  THE  CHOLLAR-POTOSI,  SAVAGE,  HALE,  AND  NORCROSS  MINES.  171 

34.  THE  BURNING  MINE 180 

35.  OFFICE  OF  THE  CONSOLIDATED  VIRGINIA  MINES 190 

36.  ACCIDENTS  IN  THE  MINES 203 

37.  THE  PILGRIM'S  LODGINGS 213 

33.  VIRGINIA  CITY 214 

89.  Miss  VIRGINIA  TILTON 217 

40.  COUNTRY  AND  CITY 220 

41.  DUMP-PILES  OF  HALE  AND  NORCROSS  MINES 223 

42.  WOOD  AND  WATER 227 

*  The  illustrations  of  Mining  Works,  Scenery,  and  Machinery,  are  from  Photographs  taken 
cm  the  spot,  by  John  S.  Noe,  and  E.  Hurd,  of  Virginia  City,  Nevada. 


Vin  ILL  US  TRA  TIONS. 


48.  RHODE  ISLAND  MILT,,  GOLD  HILL 222 

44.  RESIDKNCH  o*  HON.  J.  P.  JONES 222 

45.  GOLD  HILL,  LOOKING  NORTH 237 

46.  LUMBEBING  ON  LAKH  TAHOE 241 

47.  CAPTURE  OF  PERKINS 251 

48.  EXECUTION  OF  PERKINS 251 

49.  INDIAN  HUNTER  AND  SQUAWS 261 

50.  WINNEMUCCA— CHIEF  OF  THE  PIUTES 267 

51.  PBINCB  NATCHEZ 270 

52.  THE  STORY  OF  THE  CAVE 275 

53.  SHRIMPS 285 

54.  AN  INDIAN  ENGAMPMENT 291 

55.  GRINDING  AXES 295 

56.  CONSOLIDATED  VIRGINIA  HOISTING  WORKS 299 

27.   HOISTING  C AGB 300 

58.  HOISTING  CAR  AND  CAGES  IN  SILVER  MINES 305 

59.  DIAGRAM  SHOWING  HEIGHT  OF  MINES 325 

60.  MERRIMAO  MILL,  CARBON  RIVER 333 

61.  LOADING  SILVER  ORE,  CONSOLIDATED  VIRGINIA  MINES 337 

62.  FIRST  QUARTZ  MINE  IN  NEVADA 342 

63.  QUARTZ  MILL— AMALGAMATING  ROOM 342 

64.  HOISTING  WORKS 349 

65.  THIS  TRIAL  OF  SKILL 863 

66.  THB  SCARED  BULLY 879 

67.  "THE  HEATHEN  CHINEE  " 389 

68.  SCANNING  THE  BULLETIN 403 

69.  FUNNY  INCIDENTS 408 

70.  THE  SECRET 411 

71.  VIEWS  AT  LAKE  TAHOE 414 

72.  NICK-OF-THE. WOODS .*....; 416 

73.  HANK  MONK 416 

74i    DONNER  LAKE 422 

75.  SUMMIT  OF  THE  SIERRAS 422 

76.  WINTER  AMONG  THE  MOUNTAINS 424 

77.  SONG  OF  THE  HONEST  MINER 433 

78.  AT  WORK  AND  AT  HOME 441 

79.  MINER'S  UNION  HALL 441 

80.  MINERS'  BATTLES 455 

81.  THE  HOTTEST  PLACE 459 

82.  SURROUNDINGS 477 

83.  THE  MISSING  WELL  BOTTOM 503 

84.  THE  MAN-EATER 508 

85.  JOHN  MACKEY 516 

'86.   HON.  WM.  SHARON 520 

87.  JAMES  G.  FAIB , 524 

88.  CAPT.  SAMUEL  CUBTTS 527 

89.  HON.  J.  P.  JONES 531 

90.  THE  SLAPJACK  FEAT 538 

91.  THE  STOBY  OF  PIKE  AND  TOM 549 


T 

CHAPTER  I. 

THE   FIRST   SETTLERS   IN  NEVADA. 

Facts  and  Fiction — How  the  Rivers  are  Lost — Unwelcome  Visitors — 

The  Washoes— Taking  in  the  Pilgrims 17 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE   SEARCH   FOR   GOLD. 

"Washing" — Celestials  at  the   Diggings — Original   Papers — Primitive 

Amusements — Jacob  Job's  little  Game — A  Delusion  and  a  Snare.. . .  26 
CHAPTER   III. 

ADVENTURES  OF  EARLY   PROSPECTORS. 

The  Mysterious  Brothers— What  was  found  in  a  Shaft— Pike's  Great  Dis- 
covery— "Stuff  they  Make  Compasses  of" — Wonderful  travelling 

Stones 33 

CHAPTER   IV. 

WHAT  THEY    DISCOVERED. 

"  That  Blasted  Blue  Stuff"—"  Old  Pancake  "—A  Discovery— John  Bish- 
op's Story — Unearthly  Treasure 39 

CHAPTER  V. 

Discovery  of  the  Great  Comstock — What  they  threw  Away — Old  Pancake 
Arrives — Questionable  Rights — Sold  and  "  Sold  " — Locking  up  "Old 
Virginia." 47 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE   DISCOVERY   SILVER. 

"  Old  Pancake's  "  Weakness — Naming  the  town — An  Astounding  Dis- 
closure— Going  to  th«  Diggings — A  Grand  Discovery 55 

CHAPTER  VII. 

REMINISCENCES  OF  EARLY   MINING-DAYS. 

The  Old  Record  Book — Strange  Notices — Curious  Houses — A  Modern 

Robinson  Crusoe — Before  the  World — Mills  and  Arastras 6l 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE    FATE  OF    DISCOVERERS. 

Thieves  in  the  Camp — An  Uupleasant  Joke — Sales  of  Mining  Property 

— Smelting  on  a  Small  Scale — What  they  Got  from  the  Furnaces. ...   70 


COATED  TS. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
COMSTOCK'S  MATRIMONY. 

"Old  Pancake"  Courting — Catching  a  Runaway  Wife — Women  and 
Mischief— Always  the  Same — Winnie  and  his  Wife — Seeking  a  New 

Bonanza 77 

CHAPTER  X. 
COMSTOCK'S  LETTER. 
"  Old  Pancake's  "  Story— Roughing  It— The  Fate  of  Old  Virginia— Ole 

Comstock  Dead — A  Man  who  drank  but  Little 82 

CHAPTER  XI. 

OLD  VIRGINIA  AND   HIS   STORIES. 

Prospecting  for  a  dinner — A  Skunk  Story — O'Riley's  Mistake — A  Duel: 
Curious  Consequences — Flight  of  the  Victor — O'Riley  and  his  Gun.  89 

CHAPTER  XII. 

MISLED  BY  THE  SPIRITS. 

The  Great  Oil-Tank — An  Untapped  Reservoir — Going  in  and  Coming 
out — Experiences  of  those  who  Stayed — Approach  of  Spring — "  Zeph- 
yrs" and  Avalanches — A  Rather  long  Night — Queer  Incidents 100 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

EARLY  MINING. 

"  Bring  out  your  Injunction  " — Testing  Ores  for  Gold — Testing  Ores  for 

Silver — A  Fire  Assay — Valuable  Donkeys — The  Washoe  "Canary"  109 

CHAPTER   XIV. 

MIGRATION   ON   A   LARGE    SCALE. 

The  Migratory  Instinct — The  Piute  War— Battle  of  Pyramid   Lake — 

Second  Expedition — The  Survivors  of  the  Slaughter 116 

CHAPTER  XV. 

TROUBLE  WITH   THE    INDIANS. 

An  Unlucky  Dutchman — Skirmishing— An  Appeal  to  Indian  Justice — 
After  the  Scalps — Old  Gus.  and  his  "  Injun." 121 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

STATE   OF  SOCIETY. 

Organization  Begun— In  Search  of  the  Gold— Fighting  Sam  Brown— The 

Knife  and  the  Pistol — Pugnacious  Periods 128 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

EARLY    COMSTOCK   MINING    OPERATIONS. 

In  the  Heart  of  the  Bonanza— Inside  the  Mine— Extraordinary  Experi- 
ments— "  Process  Peddlers  "  and  their  Devices — The  Value  of  Tail- 
ings— Neat  way  of  making  Rings — waste  of  Gold  and  Silver 133. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

LOSS   OF  THE  PRECIOUS  METALS. 

Floating  Treasure — Where  the  Quicksilver  Goes — An  Unanswered  Ques- 
tion— Floating  Away 143 

CHAPTER   XIX. 

THE  SOCIAL    ASPECT  OF    THE   TERRITORY. 

Footpads  on  the  "Divide" — Attacking  a  Dutchman — Mysterious  Dis- 
appearances— Search  for  the  Missing — A  Bonanza  of  Beef — Where 

did  they  go  to  ? 146 

CHAPTER  XX. 

THE  MOUNTAIN  REGION  OF  NEVADA. 

Providing  for  his  Friends — The  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains — The  Ascent 
of  Mount  Davidson — An  Eclipse — Going  Back  to  the  City — A 

Majestic  Scene 154 

CHAPTER   XXL 

THE    SIERRAS. 

How  the  Fissures  were  Formed — Formation  of  Quartz  and  Ores — How 
the  Comstock  Vein  was  Found — Disagreeable  "  Pinching  " — Never 

Discouraged 160 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

BONANZA    AND    BORRASCA. 

Sales  of  Stock — A  Day's  Vicissitudes — Speculations — An  Infallible  Maxim 

— Mr.  Frank's  Devices — Nada  Bonanza 165 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

HOW   THE    MINES    ARE  WORKED. 

Hoisting  the  "Giraffe"— Deserted  Shafts— Perillous  Ways  and  Dark  Places 

— What  they  saw  in  the  Night — Rather  Astonished — Poisoned 170 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

FIREDAMP. — A   MINE   IN   FLAMES. 

Yellow-Jacket  Mine  in  a  Blaze— A  Scene  of  Horror— The  Victims  Sub- 
duing the  Flames — The  Work  of  Destruction — Scenes  at  the  Mouth 

of  the  Shaft — On  Fire  for  three  Years — Missing  Men 176 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

DEATH  IN  THE  MINE. 

Explosions  of  Firedamp — How  Gas  is  formed  in  the  Mines — Searching 
for  the  Dead — What  the  Giant-powder  Did — The  Inquest,  and  the 

Dead — Carelessness  of  the  Miners 186 

CHAPTER   XXVI. 

DESTRUCTION   OF  THE   BELCHER   SHAFT. 

Progress  of  the  Flames — Descending  the  Burning  Shaft — Danger — A 
Cave  in  the  Mine — Deluge  of  Fire — Courage  of  the  Men — Still 
Burning — A  Warm  Comparison — The  Centre  of  the  Earth IQI 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   XXVII. 

WAR   IN  THE   MINE. 

Smoking  out  the  Enemy — The  Early  days  of  Washoe — Amiable  Miners 
— The  Kossuth  and  the  Alhambra — Causes  of  Fear — A  Little  Mis- 
chief—Burnt Rags 197 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

A   CHAPTER    OF   ACCIDENTS. 

The  Adventures  of  Four  Miners — Fixed — A  Struggle  for  Life — Danger- 
ous Playthings — Exploding  with  a  Scratch — Those  little  Copper  Cyl- 
inders— Loss  of  Noses  and  Thumbs , 2OI 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

MINING    FATALITIES. 

Tumbling  down  Two  Thousand  Feet — Blown  to  Atoms — A  Singular 
Accident — Automatic  Safety — Origin  of  Accidents — The  Pilgrim  in 
a  Coffin — Shuffling  out  the  "  Corpse  " 208 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

TOWNS   OF   THE    BIG    BONANZA. 

The  First-born  of  Virginia  City — A  Comical  Newspaper-Office — Growing 
like  Mushrooms — A  little  Pictnre — Among  the  Rubbish-Dumps — 
Big  Loads—"  See  for  Yourselves  " 215 

CHAPTER   XXXI. 

RALROAD    LINES. 

Travelling  in  a  Circle — Through  the  Six  Tunnels — Crooked  Roads — 
Side-tracks  and  Other  Devices — The  Way  the  Iron  Horse  Goes — The 
Men  on  the  Line — Timed  by  Telegraph 227 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 

AN    ENGINEERING    TRIUMPH. 

Spring  Business — Tapping  the  Hills — Dams  Constructed — What  Mr. 
Shussler  Did— The  Big  Water-Pipe—Testing  the  Siphon— Great 
Rejoicings — The  Work  Completed 231 

CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

HOW  WOOD   IS   CUT   IN   THE    SIERRAS. 

"The  Forests  of  the  Mountains — A  Daring  Leap— The  Rafts  on  Lake 
Tahoe — Descending  the  Flumes — Vanishing  Forests — Coal  Deposits 
of  Nevada .238 

CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

THE    "  SIX    HUNDRED    AND    ONE." 

.A  Mysterious  Society — Afraid — Led  forth  to  Death — The  fate  of  Perkins 
— "Another  Man  Gone" — Kirk's  Fate — Venturing  too  Far — "You 
see  he  Stayed " 247 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

THE   WASHOE   ZEPHYR. 

An  Unpleasant  Breeze — "  Sleep  no  More  " — A  Jackass  on  the  Wing — 
Weird  Scenes — The  Artist's  Soul — Light  and  Shade — Mountain 
Scenery — The  Giants  of  the  Sierras 25$  ""-? 

CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

THE   RED    PROPRIETORS. 

The  Piutes  and  the  other  Reds — A  Strange  Pair — Old  Winnemucca — 
The  Woman  who  made  the  Indians — The  Indians'  Ancestress — The 
Piute  Brave — Big  Injuns 261' 

CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

WINNEMUCCA  AND   HIS   BRAVES. 

On  the  War-path — An  Interview  with   the  Chief— A  White  Indian — 

Captain  Truckee — John's  Funeral  Oration — The  "  Princess."  Sarah.  266 

CHAPTER   XXXVIII. 

SKETCHES    OF   INDIAN   LIFE. 

Juan's  Spanish  Speculation — The  Devil's  Visit  to  Earth — Cooking  the 
Sage — What  was  It  ? — Piute  Theology — Poco  Tiempo — "Plenty  Old" 
— Jim  and  his  Ducks 272 

CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

CONCERNING   "LO"  AND    HIS    FAMILY. 

A  Little  Warrior  in  a  Fix — Only  a  Shrimp — Piutes  in  Virginia  City—- 
The Lord  and  His  Lady— How  the  Little  Ones  Came— The  Early 
Settler — Adam  and  Eve — A  Model  Parent — An  Important  Occasion 
—Sam's  Theft 282 

CHAPTER  XL. 

A  VISIT    TO   THE    MINES. 

Above  Ground — Suspicious  Attacks — How  the  Cage  is  Worked — Great 

Responsibility — Cages,  Reels,  and  Cables — Comical  Disguises 293 

CHAPTER  XLI.      , 

DESCENDING    IN  THE    SAFETY-CAGE. 

Our  Conductor — Downward — Unpleasant  Possibilities — Safety — A  Bless- 
ed Inventor — The  Price  of  Stock — Vasquez  and  His  Friends — The 
Carman 301 

CHAPTER  XLII. 

BELOW  THE   SURFACE. 

Tumbling  down  a  Chute — Timbering  a  Mine — Taking  Samples — What 
the  "Giraffe"  can  Carry — Gnomes  of  the  Mine — Troglodytes — 
What  is  "  Sumpf  ?  " 310- 


XIV  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XLIII. 

CURIOSITIES   OF    VENTILATION. 

Draughts  and  Drifts — Machinery  of  the  Lower- Levels — Southward  Cur- 
rents— Use  of  Compressed  Air — Industrious  little  Engines 317 

CHAPTER  XLIV. 

UNDERGROUND    BUSINESS    ARRANGEMENTS. 

Changing  Shifts— A  Shift-Boss's  Report— Useful  Items— Modern  Trog- 
lodytes— Shirtless  but  Hot — Fights  and  Factions 322 

CHAPTER  XLV. 

GHOST-HAUNTED    SHAFTS. 

Rats — Unwelcome  Visitors — Chasing  the  Ghost — Cornered 329 

CHAPTER  XLVI. 

EXTRACTING    SILVER   FROM    THE   ORE. 

The  Reduction- Works — Working  the  Machinery — The  Batteries — Pre- 
paring the  Ore — The  Amalgamating- Room — Two  Processes 336 

CHAPTER  XLVII. 

ASSAYS   OF   THE   SILVER  BULLION.  ' 

How   Quicksilver  Vanishes — Charging   the   Retorts — Ladling    out  the 

Molten  Silver — How  Assays  are  Made — Results 346 

CHAPTER  XLVIII. 

SALOON-BIRDS. 

Big  Eaters — Recognizing  Murphy — A  Nice  Little  Supper — What  he  Did 
with  his  Gun — "  A  Devil  of  a  Time  " — "  A  Nice  Agreeable  Gentle- 
man."  '. 354 

CHAPTER  XLIX. 

SOME   VERY   QUEER   CUSTOMERS. 

A  trifling  Accident — Blazer  and  His  Friends — A  Little  Misunderstanding 
— "  Couldn't  Drink  Alone  "— "  I'll  bring  in  the  Rabble  "—The  Dea- 
con Sent  For — Resurrection  ! — *  Awful  big  Gooses." 362 

CHAPTER  L 

ORIGINAL    CHARACTERS. 

A  Fuddled  Pillar — Philosophical  Advice— "  Don't  Git  Married  Afferd" 
Mr.  Jones's  Guest — The  War-hoss  of  the  Hills — Something  of  a 

Fighter — Beating  a  Retreat — "Jim  Carter  or  the  Devil." 371 

CHAPTER  LI. 

THE    "HEATHEN    CHINEE." 

A  Strange  Mixture  of  Duties — Wicked  Mongolian  Tricks — 'Melican  and 

Chinaman  Compared — A  Ghostly  Difference — Restless  Spirits 382 

CHAPTER  LII. 

CHINESE    OPIUM-DENS. 

How  they  Smoke  the  Drug — Babel — Street-Scenes  in  Virginia  City — 

Voices  of  the  People — Hard  Cash — The  Grasshopper  Man 388 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  LIII. 

HOW   FORTUNES  ARE   MADE  AND  LOST. 

Bulls  and  Bears — Doings  of  the  Brokers — On  a  Margin — "Pussy-Cat 

Wilde"  and  "  Bobtaile  "—Going  Up  !— Dealers  and  Dabblers £97 

CHAPTER    LIV. 

CURIOUS    SPECULATIONS    IN    STOCK. 

Old  Joe's  Disaster — A  New  Excitement — Sharp  Doings — "  The  Greatest 

Buy  on  the  Lead  " — A  Lady's  Speculation 405 

CHAPTER  LV. 

HOLIDAYS    AND    FUN. 

Romantic  Scenery — A  Curious  Freak  of  Nature — Lake  Tahoe — Hank 

Monk — He  Couldn't  tell  a  Lie — Practical  Joking — The  Summit...  413 
CHAPTER   LVI. 

TERRIBLE   STORY   OF  THE  DONNERS. 

Donner  Lake — Lost  in  the  Snow — A  Horrible  Scene — What  became  of 

the  Donners— The  Sulphur  Springs— The  Golden  State 420 

CHAPTER   LVII. 

TRACES  *OF    THE   TRICKSY  MINER. 

A  Neat  little  Game — What  Doubting  Thomas  Found — "  Doctoring  "  a 

Tape-line — Devices  of  an  Honest  Man — What  a  Stockholder  Found.  427 
CHAPTER   LVIII. 

THE  PARADISE   OF  BOGUS  MINERS. 

"  Me  Ketch  um  There  " — Doings  of  the  Roving  Miner — The  "  Goddess 

of  Poverty" — The  Bully  Honest  Miner 432 

CHAPTER   LIX. 

PAY-DAY    AT    THE   MINES. 

Among  the  Employes — Miners'  Union — Labor  and  Capital — A  Heavy 

Pay-list — Where  the  Money  Goes  to —  "Steamer  Day." 439 

CHAPTER  LX. 

THE  HOTTEST    PLACE    IN    THE    MINE. 

Secrecy — "Booming"  Stock — Adventures  of  a  French  Count — Left  in  the 

Dark — Making  it  Hot  for  Him — Rescued — Polite  to  the  Last 446 

CHAPTER   LXI. 

UNDERGROUND   BATTLES. 

The  Beginning  of  Trouble — The  Contest — "  Fighting  Interests 454 

CHAPTER  LXII. 

THE  WEALTH  OF  THE   WORLD. 

Mines  of  Ancient  Days — The  Yield  of  American  Mines — Humboldt's 
Curious  Calculations — Varied  Fortunes — The  Plum  in  the  Pudding 
— Value  of  the  Different  Levels — Searching  in  the  Dark 461 


XVI  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   LXIII. 

FLUCTUATIONS    OF   FORTUNE. 

The  Comstock  Mines — Hidden  Treasure— A  Great  Sensation — The  Ex- 
citement Increases — Panic —  A  Millionaire's  Advice 460 

CAAPTER  LXIV. 

THE  RICHEST   SPOT  IN  THE  WORLD. 

The  Grand  Gallery — Glittering  Caverns — The  World's  Greatest  Treas- 
ure-Store— "  Ventilation  " — A  "  Horse  "  in  the  Mine 479 

CHAPTER  LXV. 

AGGREGATED    WEALTH. 

A  Fortune  in  one  Foot — Future  Prospects — What  Yet  Remains — Undis- 
covered   Bonanza — Figures  before   Facts — Facts  After   Figures — 

Distribution  of  the  Wealtji — Its  Influence 487 

GHAPTER  LXVI. 

CONCERNING  VENTILATION. 

Too  hot  for  Comfort— Blowers— Down  Deep— The  Sutro  Tunnel 496 

CHAPTER  LXVIL 

BELOW    THE    WATER-DEPOSITS. 

Deeper  than  a  Well — Bottom  Dropped  Out — Creeping  Propensities— A 

Skull  Discovered — An  Unlucky  Slip 501 

CHAPTER  LXVIII. 

SOME  INTERESTING  CREATURES. 

Carson  City — Lizards  and   Scorpions — A   Pleasing   Insect — A  Wicked 

way  of  Laying  Eggs — Another  Agreeable  Insect 509 

CHAPTER  LXIX. 

MILLIONAIRE   PROPRIETORS. 

Mr.  John  Mackey — The  Hon.  William  Sharon — How  his  Fortune  was 
Made — Mr.  James  C.  Fair — Mr.  Samuel  S.  Curtis — The  Hon.  J.  P. 

Jones — A  Big  Business 517 

CHAPTER   LXX. 

FUN  AND  FROLIC. 
A  Secret  Expedition — Bitten  by  a  Snake — All  a  Mistake — Camping  Out 

Manufacture  of  Slapjacks — "  It  never  came  Down." 533 

CHAPTER  LXXI. 

THE  BRIGHT   SIDE   OF   PROSPECTING. 

Off  for  the  Land  of  Gold — Something  in  his  Boot — Afraid  of  Tom — 

Tom's  Intentions— Pike  Outwitted— Left  Behind 540 

CHAPTER  LXXII. 

THE  COMICAL   STORY  OF   PIKE. 

Tom  Sings — The  Joke  Successful— Pike  Vanishes — A  Pretty  Big  Story— 

Doubtfnl  Dreams — Self-deceived — Our  Journey's  End 547 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    FIRST    SETTLERS    IN    NEVADA. 

THE  bare  mention  of  a  mine  of  silver  calls  up  in  most  minds 
visions  of  glittering  wealth  and  a  world  of  romantic  situ- 
ations and  associations.  All  no  doubt  have  read  the  story 
of  the  Indian  hunter,  Diego  Hualca,  who,  in  the  year  1545, 
discovered  the  world-famous  silver-mine  of  Potosi,  Peru.  How, 
while  climbing  up  the  face  of  a  steep  mountain  in  pursuit  of  a 
wild  goat,  this  fortunate  hunter  laid  hold  upon  a  bush,  in  order 
to  pull  himself  up  over  a  steep  ledge  of  rocks,  and  how  the  bush 
was  torn  out  by  the  roots,  when  lo !  wonderful  store  of  wealth 
was  laid  bare.  In  the  roots  of  the  upturned  bush,  and  in  the 
soil  of  the  spot  whence  it  was  torn,  the  eyes  of  the  lone  Indian 
hunter  beheld  masses  of  glittering  silver. 

Having  all  our  lives  had  in  mind  this  romantic  story,  and 
having  a  thousand  times  pictured  to  ourselves  the  great,  shining 
lumps  of  native  silver,  as  they  lay  exposed  in  the  black  soil 
before  that  Indian,  who  stood  alone  in  a  far-away  place  on  the 
wild  mountain,  we  are  apt  to  imagine  that  something  of  the  same 
kind  is  to  be  seen  wherever  a  silver-mine  exists.  Besides,  we 
have  all  heard  the  stories  told  by  the  old  settlers  of  the  Atlantic 
States  in  regard  to  the  wonderful  mines  of  silver  known  to  the 
Indians  in  early  days. 

Hardly  a  State  in  the  Union  but  has  its  legend  of  a  silver-mine 
known  to  the  red-men  when  they  inhabited  the  country.  This 
mine  was  pretty  much  the  same  in  every  State  and  in  every 
region.  Upon  the  removal  of  a  large  flat  stone  an  opening 
resembling  the  mouth  of  a  cavern  was  seen.  Entering  this,  you 
2  IT 


18  FACTS  AND  FICTION. 

found  yourself  in  a  great  crevice  in  the  rocks,  and  the  sides  of 
this  crevice  were  lined  with  silver,  which  you  forthwith  proceeded 
to  hew  and  chip  off  with  a  hatchet  kindly  furnished  you  by  your 
Indian  guide.  You  worked  rapidly,  as,  according  to  contract, 
you  had  but  a  limited  time  to  remain  in  the  mine.  When  the 
Indian  at  your  side  announced  your  time  up,  the  tomahawk  was 
taken  from  your  hand,  even  though  you  might  have  an  immense 
mass  detached,  save  a  mere  clinging  thread. 

Only  men  who  had  saved  the  life  of  some  Indian  of  renown 
weie  ever  led  to  these  silver  caverns  and  they  were  invariably 
obliged  to  submit  to  be  blindfolded,  so  that  none  of  them  were 
ever  able  to  find  their  way  back  to  the  mines  they  had  been 
shown. 

These  and  kindred  stories  have  placed  masses  of  native  silver, 
and  deposits  of  rich  ores  of  silver  very  near  to  the  surface  of  the 
ground,  in  the  popular  mind.  No  doubt  there  are  many  places 
in  the  world  where  native  silver  exists  almost  upon  the  present 
surface,  as  was  the  case  in  the  Potosi  mine,  in  Peru,  and  as  was 
the  case  with  the  rich  deposit  of  silver  ore  first  found  on  the 
Comstock  lode,  but  those  who  visit  the  present  mines  of  the 
Comstock  will  find  little  in  them  that  at  all  agrees  with  their 
preconceived  notions  of  silver-mines.  On  the  surface  they  will 
find  nothing  that  is  glittering,  nothing  that  is  at  all  romantic. 
The  soil  looks  much  the  same  as  in  any  other  mountainous 
region,  and  the  rocks  seem  to  have  a  very  ordinary  look  to  the 
inexperienced  eye.  The  general  hue  of  the  hills  is  a  yellowish- 
brown,  and  all  about  through  the  rents  in  the  ashen-hued  sage- 
brush which  clothes  the  country,  peep  jagged  piles  of  granite — 
the  bones  of  the  land,  showing  through  its  rags. 

In  sketching  the  history  of  the  famous  Comstock  silver  lode  of 
Nevada,  however,  and  of  the  bonanza  mines,  situated  on  that 
lode,  it  seems  proper  to  begin  by  giving  a  brief  account  of  the 
first  settlement  of  the  country,  when  known  as  Western  Utah, 
and  under  Mormon,  if  under  any  rule  ;  also,  to  chronicle  what  is 
to  be  gathered  in  regard  to  the  finding  of  gold-diggings  in  that 
region,  the  working  of  which  finally  resulted  in  the  discovery  of 
the  richest  silver-mines  in  the  world. 

Nevada,  as  at  present  bounded,  extends  from  the  35th  to  the 


HOW  THE  RIVERS  ARE  LOST.  19 

42d  degree  of  north  latitude,  and  from  the  ii4th  to  the  i2oth 
degree  west  longitude  from  Greenwich. 

The  area  of  the  State  is  112,190  square  miles,  or  71,801,819 
acres.  Assuming  the  water-surface  of  the  several  lakes  in  the 
State  to  cover  an  area  of  1,690  square  miles,  or  1,081,819  acres, 
there  remain  110,500  square  miles,  or  70,720,000  acres  as  the 
land-area  of  the  State. 

I  do  not  know  that  this  is  correct  to  the  fraction  of  an  acre, 
but,  when  the  quality  of  the  greater  part  of  the  land  is  considered, 
I  don't  think  anybody  is  likely  to  come  along  and  make  trouble 
about  the  measurement. 

The  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains,  with  long  lines  of  snowy 
peaks  towering  to  the  clouds,  form  the  western  boundary  of 
the  State  and  rise  far  above  any  mountain  ranges  lying  to 
the  westward  in  the  Great  Basin  region,  a  region  largely 
made  up  of  alkali  deserts  and  rugged,  barren  hills,  yet  a 
country  abounding  in  all  manner  of  minerals. 

The  rivers  of  Nevada  are  none  of  them  of  great  size.  They 
all  pour  their  waters  into  lakes  that  have  no  outlet,  where 
they  sink  into  the  earth  or  are  dissipated  by  the  active  evapo- 
ration that  goes  on  in  all  this  region  during  the  greater  part 
of  the  year.  Each  river  empties  into  its  lake,  or  what  in  that 
country  is  called  its  "  sink."  Not  a  river  of  them  all  gets  out 
of  the  State  or  through  any  other  river  reaches  the  sea. 

This  condition  of  the  rivers  of  Nevada  was  once  thus 
curiously  accounted  for  by  an  old  mountaineer  and  pros- 
pector. Said  he : 

"  The  way  it  came  about  was  in  this  wise — The  Almighty, 
at  the  time  he  was  creatin'  and  fashionin'  of  this  here  yearth, 

fot  along  to  this  section  late  on  Saturday  evening.  He  had 
nished  all  of  the  great  lakes,  like  Superior,  Michigan,  Huron, 
Erie  and  them — had  made  the  Ohio,  Missouri  and  Mississippi 
rivers,  and,  as  a  sort  of  wind-up,  was  about  to  make  a  river 
that  would  be  far  ahead  of  anything  he  had  yet  done  in  that 
line.  So  he  started  in  and  traced  out  Humboldt  River,  and 
Truckee  River,  and  Walker  River,  and  Reese  River,  and  all 
the  other  rivers,  and  he  was  leadin'  of  thfcm  along,  calkerlatin* 
to  bring  'em  all  together  into  one  big  boss  river  and  then 
lead  that  off  and  let  it  empty  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  or  the 
Gulf  of  California,  as  might  be  most  convenient ;  but  as  he 


20  THE  FIRST  HOUSE  IN  GENOA. 

was  bringin*  down  and  leadin*  along  the  several  branches — 
the  Truckee,  Humboldt,  Carson,  Walker,  and  them — it  came 
on  dark  and  instead  of  trying  to  carry  out  the  original  plan, 
he  jist  tucked  the  lower  ends  of  the  several  streams  into  the 
ground,  whar  they  have  remained  from  that  day  to  this." 

Carson  River  and  Carson  Valley  were  named  in  honor  of 
Kit  Carson,  the  famous  Indian  fighter,  trapper,  and  guide,  who 
visited  that  region  as  early  as  1833.  He  was  accompanied  by 
old  Jim  Beckworth,  once  chief  of  the  Crow  Indians,  three 
Crow  Indians  and  some  white  trappers — nine  men  in  all. 
The  party  passed  over  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains  to  Cali- 
fornia. 

Thirteen  years  later  when  with  Col.  J.  C.  Fremont,  Kit 
Carson  followed  his  old  trail  in  crossing  the  Sierras,  going  in 
the  direction  of  Bear  River,  and  at  last,  ascending  a  high  hill 
in  the  neighborhood  of  where  Rough-and-Ready,  California, 
now  stands,  Kit  struck  a  landmark  he  well  remembered. 
Pointing  out  the  blue  peaks  of  the  Marysville  Buttes,  seen  far 
away  in  the  smoky  distance,  he  said:  "Yonder  lies  the 
valley  of  the  Sacramento ! " 

At  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  silver,  the  principal  settle- 
ment in  that  part  of  Utah  which  afterwards  became  the 
Territory  and  eventually  the  State  of  Nevada,  was  at  Genoa, 
now  the  county-seat  of  Douglas  county  and  situated  about 
fourteen  miles  south  of  Carson  City,  the  capital  of  the  State. 
To  all  who  crossed  the  Plains,  on  their  way  to  the  gold-fields 
of  California,  in  the  early  days,  Genoa  was  known  as  "  Mor- 
mon Station,"  a  name  it  continued  to  bear  for  some  years. 
Even  after  the  name  had  been  changed  to  Genoa,  many  of 
the^old  settlers  persisted  in  calling  the  place  Mormon  Station. 

The  first  building  of  a  permanent  character  erected  in  Genoa 
was  built  by  Col.  John  Reese,  who  came  from  Salt  Lake  City 
early  in  the  spring  of  1851  with  a  stock  of  dry-goods.  This 
first  structure  was  a  large  log-house,  covering  an  area  of 
forty-five  square  yards,  was  in  the  form  of  an  L  and  at  one 
time  formed  two  sides  of  a  pentagon-shaped  fort.  Colonel 
Reese  bought  the  land  on  which  the  town  of  Genoa  now 
stands,  with  a  farm  adjoining,  of  Captain  Jim,  of  the  Washoe 
tribe  of  Indians,  for  two  sacks  of  flour. 


UNWELCOME   VISITORS.  23 

Besides  the  settlement  at  Mormon  Station,  a  settlement,  also 
by  Mormons,  was  commenced  in  the  spring  of  1853  at  Frank- 
town,  Washoe  Valley.  Quite  a  little  hamlet  was  formed  at 
Franktown ;  and  others  of  the  colony  settled  at  various  points 
along  the  west  side  of  the  valley  at  the  base  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada  Mountains.  Several  Mormon  families  still  reside  in 
this  neighborhood  and  occasionally  the  voice  of  the  Mor- 
mon preacher  is  yet  to  be  heard. 

Orson  Hyde,  a  man  of  considerable  note  at  Salt  Lake,  had 
in  charge  the  spiritual  and  temporal  welfare  of  the  Mormon 
settlements  in  the  early  days,  he  being  both  preacher  and 
Justice  of  the  Peace. 

At  this  time  in  the  history  of  the  country  there  was  no  town 
in  Eagle  Valley,  where  Carson  City  now  stands.  The  first 
building  erected  in  that  neighborhood  was  at  Eagle  Ranche, 
from  which  ranche  the  valley  took  its  name.  This  place  was 
afterwards  better  known  as  King's  Ranche,  a  name  it  still  bears. 
Two  or  three  houses  were  next  built  on  the  present  site  of 
Carson  City,  but  the  town  was  not  regularly  laid  out  until  1858, 
when  the  land  was  purchased  by  Major  Ormsby,  who  gave  the 
place  the  name  it  now  bears. 

Although  these  early  settlements  were  made  upon  lands 
belonging  to  the  Washoe  Indians,  a  tribe  of  considerable  strength 
at  the  time,  yet  no  very  serious  battles  were  ever  had  with  them. 
The  whites,  however,  who  were  at  first  a  mere  handful,  Mor- 
mons and  "  Gentiles,"  all  told,  stood  in  considerable  awe  of  the 
redskins.  They  were  obliged  to  quietly  endure  not  a  few  insults 
from  some  of  the  bullies  of  the  tribe,  who  had  a  fashion  of  walk- 
ing into  houses  and  making  themselves  at  home  in  the  cupboards. 
They  were  often  exceedingly  insolent,  and  when  only  women 
and  children  were  found  at  a  house,  always  managed  to  frighten 
them  into  giving  up  most  of  the  provisions  about  the  place. 

In  one  instance,  however,  an  Indian  who  went  to  the  house  of 
a  Gentile,  when  the  only  occupants  were  a  boy  about  twelve 
years  of  age  and  his  sister  still  younger,  met  a  fate  he  little 
anticipated.  The  Indian,  after  regaling  himself  in  the  pantry, 
began  threatening  the  children  with  a  roasting  at  the  stake,  for 
the  purpose  of  enjoying  their  fright ;  and,  finally,  whipping  out  a 


24  THE   W A  SHOES. 


big  knife,  began  "  making  believe  "  to  take  the  scalp  of  the  little 
girl.  The  boy,  it  would  seem,  thought  they  had  had  about  enough 
of  this  foolishness,  as  he  went  into  an  adjoining  room,  took  down 
his  father's  rifle  and  returning  to  where  the  brave  was  flourish- 
ing his  knife  and  enjoying  himself,  shot  him  dead  in  his  tracks. 

The  Indian  killed  was  one  of  the  worst  in  the  Washoe  tribe, 
and  was  greatly  dreaded  in  all  the  settlements.  The  father  of 
the  boy  who  rid  the  country  of  the  much-feared  Indian  bully^ 
was  obliged  to  "  pull  up  stakes  "  at  once  and  fly  to  California  for 
safety. 

The  Washoes  inhabited  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Sierras,  and 
made  the  stealing  of  the  stock  of  the  settlers  both  their 
business  and  their  pleasure.  Like  crows  they  sat  looking  down 
into  the  valleys  from  the  tops  of  the  rocky  buttresses  of  the 
mountains,  and  when  they  saw  the  coast  clear,  down  they  came 
and  gathered  in  as  many  animals  as  they  were  able  to  drive. 

Whenever  the  whites  were  so  incautious  as  to  collect  for  the 
purpose  of  enjoying  a  ball  or  any  such  social  festivity,  the 
Washoes  were  pretty  sure  to  know  of  the  affair,  and  seldom 
neglected  to  swoop  from  their  mountain  fastnesses,  gathering  up 
and  driving  away  whatever  animals  they  could  find.  The  trail 
of  the  Indian  depredators,  when  followed,  was  generally  found 
marked  with  the  remains  of  roasted  horses — the  Washoes  hav- 
ing a  great  fondness  for  horse-flesh.  On  the  occasion  of  a  ball 
in  Dayton,  as  late  as  1854,  the  Washoes  came  down  and  "gob- 
bled up  "  all  the  horses  of  the  revellers.  The  Indians  appeared 
to  think  this  cunning  and  a  very  good  joke. 

Although  Colonel  Reese  had  about  his  big  log-house  at 
Mormon  Station,  a  strong  stockade,  that  defence  was  never 
required  as  a  protection  against  the  Washoe  Indians.  The 
tribe  has  dwindled  away  until  at  the  present  day  those  remain- 
ing are  few  and  miserably  poor,  ragged,  filthy,  and  spiritless. 
They  now  cling  to  the  skirts  of  the  white  man  and  stand  in  awe 
of  all  surrounding  tribes  of  Indians,  even  in  time  of  peace. 

The  settlements  thus  far  mentioned  were  all  scattered  along 
the  eastern  base  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains,  but  as  early 
as  1851,  there  were  erected  a  few  temporary  structures,  prin- 
cipally canvas  houses,  at  various  points  to  the  eastward,  along 


TAKING  IN  THE  PILGRIMS.  25 

the  line  of  the  main  "  Emigrant  Road."  This,  the  then  grand 
highway  across  the  continent,  after  passing  through  some  of  the 
worst  and  most  dreaded  deserts  between  the  Rocky  Mountains 
and  the  Sierras,  led  to  the  well-watered  and  fertile  valley  of  the 
Carson,  a  region  that  doubtless  seemed  almost  a  paradise  to  the 
weary  emigrant,  who  for  'months  and  months  had  been  toiling 
over  rugged  mountains  and  across  sterile  plains. 

Mormon  Station  being  directly  on  the  old  Hangtown  (after- 
wards Placerville)  Road,  then  the  principal  route  over  the 
Sierras,  drove  a  thriving  trade  with  the  thousands  and  tens  of 
thousands  of  adventurers  who  were  then  pushing  their  way 
toward  the  gold-fields  of  California.  Seeing  that  there  was 
money  in  this  trade,  not  a  few  adventurers,  principally  from 
Salt  Lake  and  California,  established  posts  on  the  line  of  the 
road  to  the  eastward  of  Mormon  Station  and  Eagle  Ranche,  a 
few  even  pushing  out  a  considerable  distance  into  the  deserts. 
The  majority  of  these  traders,  however,  returned  to  California 
each  season,  following  in  the  wake  of  the  last  emigrant-trains 
that  came  in  over  the  Plains,  and  there  remained  until  the 
tide  of  emigration  began  to  pour  in  again  the  next  year. 

These  traders  furnished  the  "  pilgrims "  cheap  luxuries  at 
outrageously  high  prices,  traded  for  their  disabled  cattle  and 
swindled  them  in  every  possible  manner,  as  they  all  con- 
sidered the  emigrant  their  lawful  prey. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE   SEARCH    FOR   GOLD. 

GOLD  was  first  discovered  in  Nevada  in  the  spring  of 
1850,  by  some  Mormon  emigrants.  They  had  started 
for  California,  but  so  early  in  the  season  that  when 
they  arrived  at  the  Carson  River  they  learned  that  the  snow 
on  the  summit  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains  was  still  too 
deep  to  allow  of  their  being  crossed.  This  being  the  case, 
the  party  encamped  on  the  Carson  to  await  the  opening  of 
the  road. 

Having  nothing  else  to  do,  some  of  the  men  of  the  party 
began  prospecting  for  gold.  Their  camp  on  the  river  being 
at  no  great  distance  from  the  mouth  of  the  Gold  Canon,  the 
largest  canon  in  the  neighborhood,  they  were  naturally  attract- 
ed to  it  and  there  began  their  prospecting  operations. 

Although  they  knew  but  little  about  mining,  and  had  only 
pans  with  which  to  wash  the  gravel,  they  found  gold  suffi- 
ciently plentiful  to  enable  them  to  make  small  wages.  It  does 
not  appear,  however,  that  the  discoverers  worked  them  longer 
than  until  they  were  able  to  continue  their  journey  to  Califor- 
nia. 

Other  emigrants  coming  in  and  encamping  on  the  river 
learned  of  the  discovery  of  gold  in  the  canon,  and,  being 
anxious  to  begin  gold-digging  as  soon  as  possible,  did  some 
prospecting  along  the  bed  of  the  ravine. 

But  the  gold  being  fine  (/'.  <?.,  like  dust — in  fine  particles), 
and  the  quantity  not  being  up  to  their  expectations,  nearly  all 
pushed  on  to  California,  where  they  expected  to  make  for- 
tunes in  a  few  weeks  or  months;  as  all  believed,  that  they, 

26 


"WASHING"  FOR  GOLD.  27 

through  their  superior  acuteness,  would  find  places  in  some 
of  the  dark  and  secret  gulches  of  the  Sierras  where  they 
would  be  able  to  gather  pounds  of  golden  nuggets. 

Finally,  Spofford  Hall,  of  Fort  Wayne,  Indiana,  arrived 
across  the  Plains  and,  thinking  it  a  good  point  at  which  to 
establish  a  permanent  station,  erected  a  substantial  log-house 
at  a  point  not  far  from  the  mouth  of  the  Gold  Canon.  This 
was  for  some  time  known  as  Hall's  Station.  Afterwards  it 
was  known  as  McMartin's  Station,  the  property  having  been 
purchased  by  James  McMartin,  a  man  who  came  across  the 
Plains  with  Mr.  Hall.  This  house  stood  on  ground  now 
covered  by  the  town  of  Dayton  and  was  still  being  used  as  a 
store  at  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  silver,  it  being  then 
owned  by  Major  Ormsby,  killed  at  Pyramid  Lake,  in  1860,  in 
the  first  battle  with  the  Piutes. 

This  discovery  of  gold  at  the  mouth  pf  Gold  Canon  was 
undoubtedly  that  which  led  to  the  discovery,  some  years 
later,  of  the  Comstock  lode — the  first  step,  as  it  were,  to  the 
grand  silver  discovery  of  the  age.  At  the  head  of  Gold  Canon 
are  situated  a  number  of  the  leading  mines  of  the  Comstock 
range. 

In  the  spring  of  1852  a  considerable  number  of  men  began 
working  on  the  lower  part  of  Gold  Canon,  most  of  them  using 
rockers  in  their  mining  operations.  As  these  men  did  well, 
making  from  $5  to  $10  per  day,  the  number  of  miners  on  the 
canon  was  considerably  greater  in  the  winter  and  spring  of 
1853,  there  being  as  many  as  two  or  three  hundred  men 
at  work.  As  there  was  little  water  in  the  bed  of  the  canon 
except  during  the  winter  and  spring  months,  few  miners 
were  to  be  seen  at  work  in  summer — seldom  more  than  forty 
or  fifty. 

As  the  miners  worked  their  way  up  the  canon  from  bar  to 
bar,  a  new  town  was  eventually  founded  at  a  point  a  few 
miles  above  the  first  settlement  at  its  mouth.  This  was  a 
little  hamlet  of  a  dozen  houses  of  all  kinds,  and  was  christ- 
ened Johntown.  In  this  little  town  or  "  Camp,"  as  such 
places  are  usually  styled  in  mining  countries,  lived  Henry 
Comstock,  who  gave  his  name,  some  years  later  to  the  great 
silver  lode;  also,  Peter  O'Riley  and  Patrick  McLaughlin, 


28 


CELESTIALS  A  T  THE  DIGGINGS. 


the  discoverers  of  the  Comstock  vein.  "  Old  Virginia " 
(James  Finney,  or  Fennimore),  in  whose  honor  Virginia 
City,  the  great  mining  town  of  Nevada,  was  named,  was  also 


"OLD  VIRGINIA"  AT  HIS  ROCKER. 

a  resident  of  Johntown  in  the  early  days,  as  were  several 
other  persons  who  are  now  classed  among  the  worthies  of 
the  Comstock  range. 

From  about  1856  up  to  1858,  Johntown  was  the  "big  mining 
town  "  of  Western  Utah — at  least  was  the  headquarters  of  most 
of  the  miners  at  work  in  the  country.  All  told,  the  camp  con- 
tained only  about  a  dozen  buildings,  some  of  which  were  mere 
shanties,  but  many  of  the  miners  preferred  to  camp  out  during 
the  spring  and  summer  months — they  had  no  use  for  houses. 

A  large  number  of  Chinamen  being  at  work  at  the  mouth  of 
the  canon,  near  where  the  gold  was  first  discovered,  that  place 
finally  became  known  as  "Chinatown,"  a  name  which  it  long 
retained,  though  the  whites  who  settled  there  did  not  much 
fancy  the  name.  They  gave  the  place  the  name  of  Mineral 
Rapids,  but  this  did  not  take ;  then  there  was  danger  of  it  being 


ORIGINAL  PAPERS.  29 


christened  Nevada  City,  but  the  citizens  rose  in  their  might  and 
at  a  meeting,  held  November  3d.  1861,  the  name  of  Dayton  was 
unanimously  adopted,  and  Dayton  it  has  ever  since  remained. 

The  Chinamen  mentioned,  forty  or  fifty  in  number  at  first, 
were  brought  over  from  California,  in  1856,  to  work  on  a  big 
water-ditch,  by  means  of  which  water  was  to  be  brought  to  the 
Gold  Canon  mines  from  the  Carson  River.  Finding  they  would 
be  allowed  to  mine  in  certain  places,  others  followed,  and  at  one 
time  not  less  than  one  hundred  and  eighty  Mongolians  were  at 
work  at  the  lower  end  of  the  Canon. 

The  Celestials  probably  found  very  good  pay,  even  in  the 
places  where  they  were  allowed  to  plant  their  rockers,  as  it  is 
said  that  the.  bars  for  some  miles  up  the  canon  paid  well  when 
first  worked,  there  being  places  where  an  ounce  per  day  was 
taken  out. 

The  canon  continued  to  pay  pretty  fair  wages  for  some  years, 
and  was  still  being  worked  at  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  silver 
and  the  grand  silver  excitement  which  immediately  followed. 

Literature  was  not  neglected  at  this  early  period  in  the  history 
of  Washoe.  There  were,  even  in  the  early  days  when  Johntown 
was  the  great  mining  centre  of  the  country,  two  spicy  weekly 
papers  published  in  the  land.  They  were  written  on  foolscap, 
often  several  sheets,  and,  by  being  assiduously  passed  from  hand 
to  hand,  were  widely  circulated  in  the  several  settlements. 
These  papers  were  everywhere  eagerly  read.  One,  called 
the  Scorpion,  was  published  at  Genoa,  and  was  edited  by  S.  A. 
Kinsey;  the  other  was  published  at  Johntown  and  was  edited 
by  Joe  Webb.  It  was  called  The  Gold-Canon  Switch.  These 
papers  were  both  published  between  the  years  1854  and  1858. 

The  people  of  Johntown,  though  not  numerous,  were  jovial. 
They  were  fond  of  amusements  of  all  kinds.  Nearly  every 
Saturday  night  a  "  grand  ball "  was  given  at  "  Dutch  Nick's  " 
saloon.  As  there  were  but  three  white  women  in  the  town,  it 
was  necessary,  in  order  to  "make  up  the  set,"  to  take  in  Miss 
Sarah  Winnemucca,  the  "  Piute  Princess  "  (daughter  of  Winne- 
mucca,  chief  of  all  the  Piutes).  When  the  orchestra — a  "  yaller- 
backed  fiddle  " — struck  up  and  the  '  French  four '  was  in  order, 
the  enthusiastic  Johntowners  went  forth  in  the  dance  with  ardor 
and  filled  the  air  with  splinters  from  the  puncheon  floor.  When 


30 


PRIMITl  VE  A  M  U SEMEN  TS. 


a  John  town  "  hoss  "  balanced  in  front  of  the  "  Princess  "  he  made 
no  effort  to  economise  shoe-leather. 

Even  in  those  early  days  and  in  that  primitive  community,  the 


THE  PRINCESS   SARAH   W1SNEMUCCA. 


"beast  of  the  jungle  "  was  known  in  the  land.  The  "boys" 
were  not  allowed  to  languish  for  want  of  amusement.  When 
their  sacks  of  gold-dust  became  painfully  plethoric,  and  too  heavy 
to  be  conveniently  packed  around,  Jacob  Job,  the  leading  mer- 
chant of  the  place  used  to  deal  faro  for  them  "  out  of  hand ;  "  that 
is,  he  took  the  cards  from  his  hand  and  laid  them  out  on  the 
table,  instead  of  drawing  them  from  a  box  such  as  is  used  in  the 
game  by  regular  "sports." 

Billy  Williams,  a  man  who  had  a  ranche  up  in  Carson  Valley, 
occasionally  came  down  to  Johntown  in  seasons  of  great  aurif- 
erous affluence,  and  dealt  for  the  boys  a  little  game  called 
"Twenty-one."  Faro,  out  of  hand,  and  Twenty-one,  with 
Williams  at  the  helm,  usually  sent  all  the  male  Johntowners  back 


APPROACHING  THE  "BONANZA." 


31 


to  their  toms  and  rockers,  each  man  financially  a  total  wreck. 

About  1857 — 58  the  diggings  along  Gold  Canon  showed  signs 

of  failing,  all  the  best  bars  and  banks  being  pretty  well  worked 


JACOB    JOB'S    LITTLE    GAME. 

out.  It  was  only  occasionally  that  a  rich  spot  could  be  found, 
and  most  of  the  miners  were  only  making  small  wages.'  That 
this  was  the  case  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  about  this  time  the 
Johntowners,  the  mining  men  of  the  land,  began  to  scatter  out 
through  the  country  and  make  prospecting  raids  in  all  directions 
among  the  hills. 

In  1857 ,  several  men  from  Johntown,  struck  gold-diggings  on 
Six-mile  Canon.  This  canon  heads  on  the  north  side  of  Mount 
Davidson,  while  Gold  Canon,  in  which  gold  was  first  found, 
heads  on  the  south  side  of  the  same  mountain.  The  heads  of 
the  two  canons  are  about  a  mile  apart,  and  through  the  eastern 
face  of  Mount  Davidson,  across  a  sort  of  plateau,  runs  the  Corn- 
stock  Silver  lode.  The  lode  (or  lead),  extends  across  the  heads 
of  both  canons,  and  the  gold  that  was  being  mined  in  both  came 
from  the  decomposed  rock  of  the  croppings  of  the  vein. 

Thus,  it  will  be  seen,  these  early  miners  were  approaching  the 


32  "A  DELUSION  AND  A  SNAKE." 

great  silver  lode  from  two  points — on  Gold  Canon  towards  the 
south,  and  on  Six-mile  Canon  toward  the  north  side  of  Mount 
Davidson.  But  not  a  man  among  them  knew  anything  of  what 
was  ahead.  They  were  only  working  for  gold  and  were  looking 
for  that  nowhere  but  in  the  gravel  of  the  ravines  ;  none  of  them 
having  thought  of  looking  for  gold-bearing  quartz  veins. 

The  men  who"  were  mining  on  Six-mile  Canon  first  struck  pay- 
ing ground,  at  a  point  nearly  a  mile  below  the  place  where  silver1 
ore  was  afterwards  found  in  the  Ophir  mine.  The  gold  was  in 
clay,  which  was  so  tough  that  before  it  could  be  washed  out  in 
rockers  it  was  necessary  to  "  puddle  "  it — that  is,  put  it  into  a 
large  square  box  or  a  hole  in  the  ground,  and  dissolve  it  by 
adding  a  proper  quantity  of  water  and  working  it  about  with 
hoes  or  shovels.  Even  working  in  this  way,  the  men  were  able  to 
make  from  five  dollars  to  an  ounce  per  day.  The  gold  found 
at  this  distance  down  the  canon  was  worth  about  $13.50  per 
ounce. 

The  miners  on  Six-mile  Canon  sold  their  dust  in  Placerville, 
California.  Being  acquainted  with  some  California  boys  who 
were  mining  in  a  place  called  'Coon  Hollow,  our  Washoe 
miners  were  in  the  habit  of  buying  a  certain  quantity  of  fine 
dust  of  them,  which  they  mixed  with  the  gold  from  Six-mile 
Canon,  when  they  were  able  to  sell  the  whole  lot  at  such  a  price 
as  was  equal  to  fifteen  dollars  per  ounce  for  their  own  dust.  As 
they  worked  further  up  the  ravine,  toward  the  Comstock  lode, 
the  gold  deteriorated  so  rapidly  in  weight,  color  and  value,  that 
this  game  could  no  longer  be  played.  The  gold-buyer  looked 
upon  the  mixture  of  Six-mile  Canon  and  'Coon  Hollow 
products  and  pronounced  it  a  delusion  and  a  snare. 


CHAPTER   III. 

ADVENTURES   OF   EARLY   PROSPECTORS. 

TWO  young  men  who  were  mining  in  Gold  Canon,  sus- 
pected the  existence  of  silver-mines  in  the  country  at 
least  five  or  six  years  before  silver  was  actually  discov- 
ered. These  men  were  Hosea  B.  and  Edgar  Allen  Grosch, 
sons  of  A.  B.  Grosch,  a  Universalist  clergyman  of  considerable 
note,  and  editor  of  a  Universalist  paper  at  Utica,  New  York. 
The  Grosch  brothers  were  well  educated  and  had  considerable 
knowledge  of  mineralogy  and  assaying. 

They  came  to  Gold  Canon  in  1852,  from  Volcano,  California, 
and  engaged  in  placer-mining.  In  1853  and  1854,  they  appear 
to  have  become  convinced  that  there  was  silver  to  be  found  in 
the  country,  and  did  a  good  deal  of  prospecting  in  various 
directions  among  the  neighboring  mountains,  doubtless  in  search 
of  silver  ore. 

In  their  cabin,  which  stood  near  the  present  town  of  Silver 
City,  about  a  mile  above  Johntown,  they  are  said  to  have  had  a 
library  consisting  of  a  considerable  number  of  volumes  of 
scientific  works ;  also  chemical  apparatus  and  assayer's  tools. 

They  did  not  associate  with  the  miners  working  on  the  canon, 
and  were  very  reticent  in  regard  to  what  they  were  doing. 
They,  however,  informed  a  few  persons  that  they  had  discovered 
a  vein  of  silver-bearing  quartz  and  it  was  well  known  among 
the  miners  that  they  had  formed  a  company  for  the  purpose  of 
working  their  mine.  The  majority  of  the  members  of  their 
company  were  understood  to  be  in  California  (about  Volcano), 
and  in  one  of  the  Atlantic  States.  Mrs.  L.  M.  Dettenreider, 
one  of  the  early  settlers  of  the  country,  and  a  lady  who  had 

33 


34:  THE  MYSTERIOUS  BROTHERS 

befriended  the  brothers,  was  given  an  interest  in  their  mine,  and 
at  one  time  had  in  her  possession  a  piece  of  ore  from  it.  This 
ore,  they  assured  her,  contained  gold,  silver,  lead,  and  antimony. 

Mrs.  Dettenreider,  who  is  a  resident  of  Virginia  City,  says 
she  always  understood  that  the  mine  discovered  by  the  Grosch 
brothers  was  somewhere  about  Mount  Davidson,  and  thinks  they 
may  have  obtained  their  ore  somewhere  along  the  Comstock 
lead. 

In  1860,  I  saw  their  old  furnaces  unearthed,  they  having  been 
covered  up  to  the  depth  of  a  foot  or  more  by  a  deposit  of  mud 
and  sand  from,  Gold  Canon.  They  were  two  in  number  and  but 
two  or  three  feet  in  length,  a  foot  in  height  and  a  foot  and  a  half 
in  width.  One  had  been  used  as  a  smelting  and  the  other  as  a 
cupel  furnace.  The  remains  of  melting-pots  and  fragments  of 
cupels  were  found  in  and  about  the  furnaces,  also  a  large  piece 
of  argentiferous  galena,  which  had  doubtless  been  procured  a 
short  distance  west  of  Silver  City,  where  there  are  yet  to  be  seen 
veins  containing  ore  of  that  character,  some  of  which  yield  fair 
assays  in  silver. 

In  the  spring  of  1857,  Hosea  Grosch,  while  engaged  in  mining, 
stuck  a  pick  in  his  foot,  inflicting  a  wound,  from  the  effects  of 
which  he  died,  in  a  few  days.  In  November  of  that  year,  while 
on  his  way  to  Volcano,  California,  Allen,  the  surviving  brother, 
was  caught  in  a  heavy  storm  in  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains, 
and  had  his  feet  frozen  so  badly  that  amputation  was  necessary, 
from  the  shock  of  which  operation  he  died.  With  the  brothers 
was  lost  the  secret  of  the  whereabouts  of  their  silver-mine ;  if 
they  ever  discovered  any  silver  except  that  contained  in  the  ore 
of  the  veins  of  argentiferous  galena  I  have  mentioned. 

After  the  discovery  of  the  old  furnaces  of  the  Grosch  brothers 
in  1860,  there  was  much  search  by  miners  in  the  neighborhood 
for  the  mine  they  had  been  prospecting,  but  no  mine  was  ever 
found. 

In  a  sort  of  sink  on  the  side  of  a  large  mountain,  at  the  foot  of 
which  stood  the  cabin  and  furnaces  of  the  brothers,  was  found  an 
old  shaft.  Here  was  supposed  to  be  the  spot  where  they  had 
worked,  and  the  place  was  "located"  ("claimed"  or  "pre- 
empted "),  and  called  the  "Lost  Shaft." 


WHAT  WAS  FOUND  IN  A  SHAFT.  35 

About  the  first  discovery  made  by  the  locators,  when  they 
began  cleaning  out  the  shaft,  was  the  body — a  sort  of  mummy — 
of  a  Piute  squaw,  who  had  been  murdered  some  years  before  by 
members  of  her  tribe,  who  had  tumbled  her  remains  into  the 
old  shaft. 

After  finding  this  "  dead  thing,'  the  owners  of  the  claim  let  a 
contract  for  the  further  sinking  and  exploration  of  the  old  shaft. 
The  men  who  took  the  contract  soon  gave  it  up.  They  said 
they  could  not  work  in  the  shaft ;  that  stones  were  falling  out 
of  its  sides  without  cause.  Others  took  the  contract,  and  each 
party  of  miners  that  went  to  work  in  the  shaft  gave  it  up,  saying 
that  their  lives  were  endangered  by  the  stones  which  suddenly 
and  at  unexpected  times,  jumped  out  of  its  sides.  A  tunnel 
was  then  started  to  tap  the  ledge  on  which  the  old  shaft  was 
supposed  to  have  been  sunk,  but  it  was  never  completed.  It  is 
now  well  known  that  the  old  shaft  was  sunk  by  a  party  of  Gold 
Canon  miners  in  1851,  they  having  taken  it  into  their  heads  that 
from  this  curious-looking  pit  or  sink  in  the  side  of  the  mountain 
came  all  the  gold  found  below  in  the  canon. 

There  was  also  a  story  current  among  the  miners,  in  1860,  that 
before  starting  on  the  trip  over  the  Sierras  which  resulted  in  his 
death,  Allen  Grosch  boxed  up  the  library  and  all  the  chemical 
and  assaying  apparatus,  and  cached  the  whole  somewhere  about 
Grizzly  Hill,  the  mountain  at  the  base  of  which  stood  the  cabin 
occupied  by  the  brothers.  There  was  much  search  by  curious 
miners  in  the  neighborhood  for  this  supposed  deposit  of  valuables. 
They  crawled  under  the  edge  of  shelving  rocks,  peered  into 
crevices  among  the  cliffs,  and  probed  all  suspicious-looking  stone- 
heaps,  but  no  bonanza  of  scientific  apparatus  was  ever  discovered. 
When  Allen  Grosch  left  to  go  over  the  mountains  to  California, 
Comstock  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  cabin,  and  it  is  very 
probable  that  whatever  books  and  apparatus  there  may  have  been 
were  carried  away  by  such  visitors  as  took  a  fancy  to  them,  and 
thus  were  scattered  and  lost. 

In  the  summer  of  1860  I  was  camped  on  a  branch  of  Gold 

Canon,  near  where  the  old  stone-cabin  of  the  Grosch  brothers 

stood.     I  had  a  score  or  more  of  neighbors,  whose  tents  were 

pitched  on  the  banks  of  the  ravine,  or  who,  having  no  tents, 

3 


3  6  PIKE '  S  GREA  T  DISCO  VER  Y. 

made  the  willows  on  the  bars  their  shelter.  One  hot  day  in 
July,  one  of  the  men,  a  big,  long-legged  Missourian,  started  up 
the  mountain  to  see  what  he  could  find.  One  object  probably 
was  to  look  for  the  Grosch  scientific  "bonanza,"  but,  being  a 
man  who  had  no  more  knowledge  of  ores  and  minerals  than  a 
Piute,  he  was  quite  sure  to  make  some  remarkable  discovery,  no 
matter  in  what  direction  he  traveled. 

He  had  been  absent  some  hours  when,  looking  up  towards  the 
sifmmit  of  Grizzly  Hill,  we  saw  a  cloud  of  dust  moving  down  the 
face  of  the  mountain.  In  the  midst  of  this  whirling  cloud,  we 
caught  occasional  glimpses  of  a  man,  bounding  along  like  a  wild 
goat.  Rocks  disturbed  by  his  feet,  rolled  down  the  steep  slope 
of  the  mountain,  adding  greatly  to  the  dust  and  commotion. 
All  in  camp  were  soon  out  gazing  at  the  unusual  spectacle,  and 
all  wondered  what  had  happened  to  "Pike,"  who  by  this  time 
had  been  recognized  by  his  long  legs  and  reckless  manner  of 
handling  them. 

Some  thought  that  a  bear  or  some  other  wild  beast  was  in 
pursuit  of  Pike,  as  he  charged  down  the  steep  mountain  in 
a  manner  so  reckless  that  it  was  very  evident  he  was  taking  no 
thought  of  the  risk  he  ran  of  breaking  his  neck. 

Over  jutting  ledges  and  through  huge  patches  of  loose,  sliding 
rock,  bounded  Pike,  and  soon  he  came  rushing  wild-eyed  into 
camp. 

Rivulets  of  perspiration  were  coursing  down  his  dust-covered 
cheeks  ;  dust  whitened  the  ends  of  his  long  black  locks,  and  dust 
seemed  to  fly  from  his  nostrils  as,  puffing  and  blowing,  he  made 
his  way  into  our  midst. 

In  both  hands  he  held  a  quantity  of  black-looking  rock.  As 
soon  as  he  could  get  his  breath  he  said  :  "  Boys,  I've  struck  it ! 
There's  millions  of  tons  of  it !  Millions  on  millions — enough  to 
make  the  whole  camp  rich !  " 

"  Well,  what  is  it  Pike  ?  "  asked  some  one.  "  Is  it  silver,  gold, 
or  what  ?  " 

"  It  is  what  none  of  you  fellers  would  ever  have  found :  it's  the 
Stuff  they  make  compasses  of!  " 

"  Make  compasses  of!     What  do  you  mean  ?  "  asked  the  men. 

"  Mean !     I  mean  just  what  I  say,  that  it  is  the  stuff  they  make 


"STUFF  THEY  MAKE  COMPASSES  OF?  37 

compasses  of — surveyors' compasses,  mariners' compasses,  and  all 
them  kind  of  compasses  that  pint  to  the  North  Pole.  None  of 
you  would  ever  have  found  it ;  you  wouldn't  have  knowed  what 
it  was !  " 

"  Well,  where  is  it  ?     Where  is  this  big  thing  ?  " 

"  Way  up  yander  on  top  of  the  mountain,"  said  Pike,  pointing 
towards  the  summit  of  Grizzly  Hill.  "  There's  a  whole  ledge  of 
it — a  ledge  fifty  foot  wide  !  " 

"  But  how  do  you  know  that  the  stuff  is  good  for  anything?  " 
asked  the  boys.  "  How  do  you  know  that  it  is  what  compasses 
are  made  of?  " 

"  How  do  I  know  ?     Easy  enough.     Just  look  here,  will  you !  " 

Pike  then  took  a  piece  of  the  rock  weighing  about  five  pounds, 
and  placing  one  end  of  it  in  the  midst  of  a  handful  of  smaller 
pieces,  ranging  from  the  size  of  a  pea  to  that  of  a  hulled  walnut, 
the  whole  mass  of  small  fragments  was  lifted  up  and  remained 
clinging  to  the  larger  lump  of  rock. 

"  See  that !  "  cried  Pike,  glancing  at  one  and  another  of  the 
men  about  him  :  "  What  did  I  tell  you  ?  and  there  is  millions 
more  where  I  got  this !  " 

All  were  now  really  a  good  deal  interested  in  the  rock  found 
by  Pike,  and  in  the  powerful  magnetic  qualities  it  exhibited,  as 
the  large  lumps  would  pick  up  and  hold  suspended  fragments 
weighing  over  an  ounce. 

"  The  way  I  come  to  find  it,"  now  explained  Pike,  "was  this: 
I  found  the  big  ledge  of  black,  heavy  rock,  and  taking  up  a 
chunk  of  it  began  trying  to  break  off  a  slice  from  the  main  ledge. 
As  I  hammered  away,  I  noticed  that  all  the  little  bits  of  rock 
pounded  loose  stuck  to  the  chunk  I  held  in  my  hand.  I  thought 
at  first  that  there  was  pine-gum  on  the  chunk,  but  could  find  none, 
then  it  all  at  once  flashed  into  my  mind,  and  I  said — '  I've  struck 
it!  'This  is  the  stuff  they  make  compasses  of!'  Then  you 
just  ought  to  have  seen  me  make  tracks  down  the  mountain." 

"  We  saw  you  !  "  said  the  men. 

Pike  then  went  on  to  say,  that  his  discovery  was  one  of  the 
most  important,  in  many  respects,  that  had  been  made  in  modern 
times.  It  would  be  of  incalculable  advantage  to  navigation 
and  would  increase  the  navies  of  the  world  a  thousand-fold. 


38  THE   WONDERFUL   TRAVELING     STONES. 

He  even  went  so  far  the  next  morning  (which  showed  that  his 
brain  had  not  been  idle  during  the  night)  as  to  assert  that  here-' 
after  there  would  be  no  difficulty  about  reaching  the  North  Pole. 
All  that  would  be  necessary,  he  said,  would  be  to  place  a  block 
of  about  ten  tons  of  his  rock  on  the  bow  of  a  ship,  when,  without 
the  aid  of  sail  or  rudder,  and  in  spite  of  adverse  winds  and  ice- 
floes, the  vessel  would  plough  its  way  up  through  the  oceans  of 
the  north  and  never  stop  until  its  nose  rested  against  the  side  of 
the  Pole. 

Pike  had  several  assays  of  his  "  find  "  made,  and  it  was  weeks 
before  he  could  be  made  to  believe  that  it  was  not  something  of 
more  value  than  magnetic  iron  ore. 

Some  years  after  Pike's  great  discovery,  a  prospector  who 
had  been  roaming  through  the  Pahranagat  Mountains,  the 
wildest  and  most  sterile  portion  of  southeastern  Nevada, 
brought  back  with  him  a  great  curiosity  in  the  shape  of  a 
number  of  traveling  stones.  The  stones  were  almost  per- 
fectly round,  the  majority  of  them  as  large  as  a  hulled  walnut, 
and  very  heavy,  being  of  an  irony  nature.  When  scattered 
about  on  the  floor,  on  a  table,  or  other  level  surface,  within 
two  or  three  feet  of  each  other,  they  immediately  began  trav- 
eling toward  a  common  centre,  and  then  huddled  up  in  a 
bunch  like  a  lot  of  eggs  in  a  nest.  A  single  stone  removed 
to  a  distance  of  a  yard,  upon  being  released,  at  once  started 
off  with  wonderful  and  somewhat  comical  celerity  to  rejoin 
its  fellows;  but  if  taken  away  four  or  five  feet  it  remained 
motionless. 

The  man  who  was  in  possession  of  these  traveling  stones 
said  that  he  found  them  in  a  region  of  country  that,  though 
comparatively  level,  is  nothing  but  bare  rock.  Scattered 
about  in  this  rocky  plain  are  a  great  number  of  little  basins, 
from  a  few  feet  to  two  or  three  rods  in  diameter,  and  it  is  in 
the  bottom  of  these  basins  that  the  rolling  stones  are  found. 
In  the  basins  they  are  seen  from  the  size  of  a  pea  to  five  or 
six  inches  in  diameter.  These  curious  pebbles  appeared  to 
be  formed  of  loadstone  or  magnetic  iron  ore. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

WHAT    THEY    DISCOVERED. 

TO  return  to  the  notions  of  the  early  miners  and  others, 
in  regard  to  the  existence  of  silver  in  Nevada.  Few, 
it  would  seem,  besides  the  Grosch  brothers,  and  one  or 
two  of  their  intimate  friends,  ever  dreamed  of  there  being  any 
silver-mines  in  the  country.  Had  there  been  anything  said 
about  the  existence  of  silver,  those  who  made  predictions 
that  it  would  be  found,  would  not  have  been  slow  to  remind 
their  friends  of  the  fact  as  sown  as  the  first  discovery  .of  silver 
was  made.  Some  of  the  Johntowners  say  that,  in  1853,  a 
Mexican  who  was  hired  by  them  and  who  worked  a  few  days 
in  Gold  Canon,  tried  to  tell  them  that  he  was  of  the  opinion 
that  there  were  silver-mines  in  the  mountains  above  them. 
The  man  spoke  no  English,  therefore  was  unable  at  that  time 
to  make  himself  understood ;  now  that  the  silver-mines  have 
been  found,  all  seems  plain  enough. 

Pointing  to  the  large  fragments  of  quartz  rock  lying  along 
the  bed  of  the  canon,  the  Mexican  said  :  "Bueno  \  " — good  ! 
Then  pointing  toward  the  mountain  peaks  about  the  head  of 
the  canon,  and  giving  his  hand  a  general  wave  over  them  all, 
he  cried  emphatically :  "Mucho  plata  !  mucho  plata  !  "  "  Much 
silver!  much  silver!  all  above  you  in  those  hills,"  was  what 
the  Mexican  said  by  word  and  gesture. 

The  men  who  were  at  work  with  the  Mexican  remember 
this,  because  during  the  two  or  three  days  he  was  at  work 
with  them  he  several  times  uttered  the  same  words  and  went 
through  the  same  pantomime.  All  that  the  miners  under- 
stood of  what  the  fellow  was  driving  at  was,  "lots  of  money, 
gold,"  somewhere  above  them  in  the  mountains. 

39 


40  "  THA  T  BLA  STED  BL  UE  STUFF." 

The  fact  is,  that  silver  was  so  little  in  the  minds  of  the  early 
miners,  and  they  knew  so  little  about  any  ore  of  silver,  that 
when  they  at  last  found  it,  they  did  not  know  what  it  was  and 
cursed  it  as  some  kind  of  heavy,  worthless  sand  of  iron,  or 
some  other  base  metal,  that  covered  up  the  quicksilver  in  the 
bottom  of  their  rockers  and  interfered  with  the  amalgamation 
and  saving  of  the  gold  they  were  washing  out.  They  damned 
this  stuff  from  the  rising  of  the  sun  till  the  going  down  thereof, 
and  worked  in  it  for  a  considerable  length  of  time  before  any- 
body knew  what  it  was.  Until  after  an  assay  of  the  "  blasted 
blue  stuff"  had  been  made,  the  miners  were  all  working  in 
blissful  ignorance  of  silver  existing  anywhere  in  the  country. 

In  the  spring  of  1858,  which  the  snow  was  going  off  and 
water  was  plentiful,  the  men  who  had  worked  in  Six-mile 
Canon  the  year  before,  with  a  number  of  other  miners  from 
Johntown,  returned  to  their  diggings.  The  newcomers  set  to 
work  on  the  canon  above  the  claims  of  those  who  had  mined 
there  the  previous  year,  planting  their  rockers  wherever  they 
found  a  spot  of  ground  that  would  pay  wages. 

Among  those  who  came  to  mine  on  Six-mile  Canon  at  this 
time  were  Peter  O'Riley  and  Pat  McLaughlin,  the  discoverers 
of  the  Comstock  silver  lode,  and  "Old  Virginia"  who  gave 
his  name  to  Virginia  City,  under  the  streets  of  which  now  lio 
the  bonanza  mines. 

Nick  Ambrose,  better  known  in  that  country  as  "  Dutch 
Nick,"  also  moved  up  to  Six-mile  Canon,  following  his  cus- 
tomers in  their  exodus  from  Johntown.  Nick  came  not  to 
mine,  but  to  minister  to  the  wants  of  the  miners.  He  set  up 
a  large  tent  and  ran  it  as  a  saloon  and  boarding-house.  The 
boys  paid  him  $14  per  week  for  board  and  "slept  them- 
selves ; "  that  is,  they  were  provided  with  blankets  of  their  own, 
and  rolling  up  in  these,  they  just  curled  down  in  the  sage- 
brush, wherever  and  whenever  they  pleased. 

The  liquid  refreshment  furnished  these  miners  by  Nick  was 
probably  the  first  of  that  popular  brand  of  whisky  known  as 
"tarantula  juice"  ever  dispensed  within  the  limits  of  Virginia 
City.  When  the  boys  were  well  charged  with  this  whisky  it 
made  the  snakes  and  tarantulas  that  bit  them  very  sick. 


1OLD  PANCAKE. 


At  this  time,  H.  T.  P.  Comstock  was  engaged  in  mining  on 
American  Flat  Ravine,  a  branch  of  Gold  Canon,  a  short 
distance  above  the  point  where  Silver  City  now  stands.  He 
was  working  with  a  "  torn  "  (a  contrivance  for  washing  aurif- 
erous gravel  which  combines  the  principles  of  the  rocker  and 
the  sluice-box),  and,  the  water  used  in  the  torn  being  some 
distance  below  where  his  "pay-dirt"  was  found,  he  had  a 
number  of  lusty  Piute  Indians  employed  in  packing  the  dirt 
to  where  he  was  engaged  in  washing  it  and  supervising  things 
in  general,  as  became  the  proprietor  of  the  "  works." 

The  ground  worked  was  not  so  rich  as  to  greatly  excite 
anyone,  it  being  about,  as  the  Chinamen  say,  "  two  pan,  one 
color,"  therefore  it  is  not  likely  that  the  Indians  received 
wages  that  gave  them  a  very  exalted  opinion  of  mining  as  a 
regular  business. 

At  that  time  Comstock,  whose  name  is  now  heard  in  all 
parts  of  the  world  in  connection  with  the  great  silver  lode 
bearing  his  name,  was  familiarly  known  to  the  miners  of 
Johntown  and  neighboring  mining  camps  as  "  Old  Pancake." 
This  name  was  given  him  by  his  brother  miners  because  he 
was  never  known  to  bake  any  bread.  He  always  had — or 
imagined  he  had — so  much  business  on  hand  that  he  could 
spare  no  time  to  fool  away  in  making  and  baking  bread.  All 
of  his  flour  was  worked  up  into  pancakes.  And  even  as, 
with  spoon  in  hand,  he  stirred  up  his  pancake  batter,  it  is  said 
he  kept  one  eye  on  the  top  of  some  distant  peak  and  was  lost 
in  speculations  in  regard  to  the  wealth  in  gold  and  silver  that 
might  rest  somewhere  beneath  its  rocky  crest. 

Meantime,  while  "Old  Pancake"  was  thus  toiling  in  Amer- 
ican-Flat Ravine,  and  utilizing  the  native  muscle  of  the  land 
in  his  struggles  with  the  stubborn  matrix  of  auriferous  deposits, 
the  miners  on  Six-mile  Canon  were  steadily  working  along 
the  channel  of  the  same,  picking  out  the  richer  places,  and 
the  gold  extracted  was  gradually  becoming  lighter  in  color 
and  weight,  consequently  less  valuable;  a  condition  of  things 
that  puzzled  them  all  not  a  little.  As,  at  that  time,  the  pres- 
ence of  silver  was  not  suspected,  the  miners  could  not  imagine 
what  was  the  matter  with  the  gold,  further  than  that  there 


42  A  DISCOVERY. 


seemed  to  be  some  kind  of  bogus  stuff  mixed  with  it  in  the 
form  of  an  alloy.  This  light  metal,  whatever  it  might  be, 
seemed  gradually  taking  the  place  of  the  gold  and  changing 
the  color  of  the  dust.  As  a  small  percentage  of  silver  alters  the 
color  of  a  great  quantity  of  gold,  the  value  per  ounce  was  not 
so  much  reduced  as  one  would  have  supposed  from  looking 
at  it;  but  in  the  value  there  was  a  slight  but  steady  decrease. 

The  miners  on  Six-mile  Canon  worked  on  in  the  fall  of 
1858  with  tolerable  success — making  small  wages — until  it 
became  so  cold  that  the  water  they  had  been  using  in  rocking 
was  frozen  up,  when  all  hands  broke  up  camp  and  returned 
to  Johntown,  to  go  into  winter  quarters. 

In  January  1859,  there  came  a  spell  of  fine  weather,  when 
some  of  the  Johntowners  struck  out  in  various  directions,  for 
the  purpose  of  prospecting;  water  being  plentiful  in  all  the 
ravines,  owing  to  the  melting  of  the  snow. 

On  Saturday,  January  28,  1859,  "Old  Virginia,"  H.  T.  P. 
(Pancake)  Comstock,  and  several  others  struck  the  surface- 
diggings  at  Gold  Hill,  and  located  a  considerable  number  of 
claims.  They  claimed  the  ground  for  placer-mining  but  had 
no  idea  of  there  being  a  rich  vein  of  gold  and  silver-bearing 
quartz  underlying  the  whole  region  upon  which  they  were 
staking  off  their  gravel-mines. 

They  had  struck  upon  the  little  knoll  to  which  the  name  of 
Gold  Hill,  was  soon  after  given,  which  knoll  stood  at  the 
north  end  of  the  site  of  the  present  town  of  Gold  Hill. 
Although  at  first  mistaken  for  placer-diggings,  the  ground 
forming  this  hillock  was  in  reality  nothing  more  than  a  great 
mass  of  the  decomposed  croppings  of  the  Comstock  lode. 
This  discovery  was  made  at  a  point  on  the  head  of  Gold 
Canon  about  a  mile  south  of  where,  a  few  months  later,  silver 
was  discovered  in  the  Ophir  mine,  at  the  head  of  Six-mile 
Canon.  John  Bishop,  one  of  the  men  who  made  this  strike, 
thus  describes  the  manner  of  it.  I  give  his  own  words: 

"Where  Gold  Hill  now  stands,  I  had  noticed  indications  of 
a  ledge  and  had  got  a  little  color.  I  spoke  to  '  Old  Virginia* 
about  it,  and  he  remembered  the  locality,  for  he  said  he  had 
often  seen  the  place  when  hunting  deer  and  antelope.  He 


JOHN  BISHOP'S  STORY.  45 

also  said  that  he  had  seen  any  quantity  of  quartz  there.  So 
he  joined  our  party  and  Comstock  also  followed  along.  When 
we  got  to  the  ground,  I  took  a  pan  and  filled  it  with  dirt,  with 
my  foot,  for  I  had  no  shovel  or  spade.  The  others  did  the 
same  thing,  though  I  believe  that  some  of  them  had  shovels. 
I  noticed  some  willows  growing  on  the  hillside  and  I  started 
for  them  with  my  pan.  The  place  looked  like  an  Indian 
spring,  which  it  proved  to  be. 

"  I  began  washing  my  pan.  "When  I  had  finished,  I  found 
that  I  had  in  it  about  fifteen  cents.  None  of  the  others  had 
less  than  eight  cents,  and  none  more  than  fifteen.  It  was 
very  fine  gold;  just  as  fine  as  flour.  Old  Virginia  decided 
that  it  was  a  good  place  to  locate  and  work. 

"  The  next  difficulty  was  to  obtain  water.  We  followed  the 
canon  along  for  some  distance  and  found  what  appeared  to 
be  the  same  formation  all  the  way  along.  Presently  Old  Vir- 
ginia and  another  man  who  had  been  rambling  away,  came 
back  and  said  they  had  found  any  amount  of  water  which 
could  be  brought  right  there  to  the  ground. 

"  I  and  my  partner  had  meantime  had  a  talk  together  and 
had  decided  to  put  the  others  of  the  party  right  in  the  middle 
of  the  good  ground. 

"After  Old  Virginia  got  back  we  told  him  this,  but  were 
not  understood,  as  he  said  if  we  had  decided  to  '  hog '  it  we 
could  do  so  and  he  would  look  around  further;  but  he 
remained,  and  when  the  ground  was  measured  off,  took  his 
share  with  the  rest. 

"  After  we  had  measured  the  ground  we  had  a  consultation 
as  to  what  name  was  to  be  given  the  place.  It  was  decidedly 
not  Gold  Canon,  for  it  was  a  little  hill ;  so  we  concluded  to 
call  it  Gold  Hill.  That  is  how  the  place  came  by  its  present 
name." 

The  new  diggings  were  discovered  on  Saturday,  and  the  next 
day  (Sunday)  nearly  all  the  male  inhabitants  of  Johntown  went 
tip  to  the  head  of  Gold  Canon  to  take  a  look  at  and  "  pass  upon  " 
the  new  mines.  The  majority  of  the  sagacious  citizens  of  the 
then  mining  metropolis  of  the  country  did  not  think  much  of  the 
new  strike.  They  had  placer-mines  near  at  home,  five  miles 
below,  that  prospected  much  better.  However,  "  Old  Pancake  " 
and  some  of  others  interested  in  the  new  diggings,  blowed 
about  them  as  being  the  big  thing  of  the  country. 

Although  the  prospects  at  first  may  not  all  have  been  as  large 
as  stated  by  Bishop,  who  is  quoted  above,  yet  Comstock,  Old 
Virginia,  and  party  soon  reached  very  rich  dirt — very  much 
richer  than  Comstock  had  ever  found  in  any  part  of  his  American 


46  UNEARTHING  TREASURE. 

Ravine  claim,  where  he  worked  the  braves  of  the  Piute  tribe. 
Starting  in  at  about  $5  per  day,  they  were  soon  making  from  $15 
to  $20,  and  for  a  time  even  more  to  the  man.  Believing  they  were 
working  placer-mines,  they  were  at  times  moved  too  far  away 
from  the  main  deposit  of  decomposed  croppings,  when  they 
made  small  wages  until  they  got  back  and  started  again  on  the 
Tight  track. 

It  was  not  long  before  most  of  the  Johntowners  had  moved  to 
Gold  Hill,  camping  under  the  trees  at  first,  then  building  shan- 
ties and  eventually  putting  up  substantial  log-houses. 

Thus  was  first  discovered,  located,  and  worked  that  portion 
of  the  Comstock  lode  lying  under  the  town  of  Gold  Hill,  and 
containing  the  Belcher,  Crown  Point,  Yellow  Jacket,  Imperial, 
Empire,  Kentuck,  and  other  leading  mines  of  the  country — 
mines  that  have  yielded  millions  upon  milions  in  gold  and 
silver  bullion. 

It  was  not,  however,  until  these  mines  had  been  worked  for 
two  or  three  years,  that  they  were  positively  known  to  be  silver- 
mines  and  a  continuation  of  the  Comstock  lead,  then  being  so 
successfully  mined  upon  a  mile  north,  at  Virginia  City. 


CHAPTER  V. 

DISCOVERY    OF    THE    GREAT    COMSTOCK   MINE. 

IN  the  spring  of  1859,  a  considerable  number  of  miners  returned 
to  Six-Mile  Canon,  to  work.     They  now  made  their  head- 
quarters at  Gold  Hill,  where  two  or  three  log-houses  includ- 
ing a  large  log  boarding-house,  had  been  erected. 

Peter  O'Riley  and  Pat  McLaughlin  set  to  work  well  up  at  the 
head  of  the  ravine,  where  the  ground  began  to  rise  toward  the 
mountain.  They  used  rockers  and  found  small  pay.  They 
continued  to  work  at  this  point  until  about  the  ist  of  June,  1859, 
gradually  extending  their  operations  up  the  slope  of  the  hill,  in 
the  hope  of  finding  something  better.  They  had  started  a 
little  cut  or  trench  up  the  hill  and  were  washing  the  dirt  taken 
from  this  in  their  rockers.  Before  they  started  the  cut  they 
were  making  only  from  $1.50  to  $2  per  day;  in  the  cut  their 
pay  was  even  less.  They  were  becoming  discouraged,  and  were 
thinking  of  going  to  Walker  River  to  try  their  luck,  placer-mines 
having  been  found  in  that  region  the  year  before,  but  concluded 
to  work  on  whefe  they  were  a  few  days  longer — -probably  in  the 
hope  of  being  able  to  raise  money  with  which  to  go  to  Walker 
River. 

Having  but  a  small  stream  of  water,  it  became  necessary  for 
them  to  dig  a  hole  as  a  sort  of  reservoir,  in  which  to  collect  it 
for  use  in  their  rockers. 

They  set  to  work  a  short  distance  above  the  little  cut  in  which 
they  were  mining,  to  make  the  needed  reservoir  or  water-hole, 
and  at  a  depth  of  about  four  feet,  struck  into  a  stratum  of  the 
rich  decomposed  ore  of  the  Ophir  Mine,  and  of  the  now  world- 
famous  Comstock  silver  lode. 

47 


48  "CURIOUS-LOOKING  STUFF." 

The  manner  in  which  the  grand  discovery  was  made,  was 
much  less  romantic  than  in  the  case  of  the  discovery  of  the 
celebrated  silver-mine  of  Potosi,  Peru.  What  our  miners  found, 
was  not  glittering  native  silver,  but  a  great  bed  of  black  sul- 
phuret  of  silver — a  decomposed  ore  of  silver  filled  with  spangles 
of  native  gold.  This  gold,  however,  was  alloyed  with  silver  to 
such  an  extent  that  it  was  more  the  color  of  silver  than  of  gold. 

The  gold  dug  in  the  placer-mines  of  California,  is  worth  from 
$16  to  $19  per  ounce,  whereas,  the  gold  taken  from  the  crop- 
pings  of  the  Comstock  was  worth  no  more  than  $11  or  $12  per 
ounce. 

When  the  discoverers  struck  into  the  odd-looking,  black  dirt, 
they  only  thought  that  it  was  a  sudden  and  rather  singular 
change  from  the  yellowish  gravel  and  clay  in  which  they  had 
been  digging.  As  any  change  was  welcome,  the  luck  in  which 
they  had  been  working  considered,  they  at  once  concluded  to 
try  some  of  the  curious-looking  stuff  in  their  rockers. 

The  result  astounded '  them.  Before,  they  had  only  been 
taking  out  a  dollar  or  two  per  day,  but  now  they  found  the 
bottoms  of  their  rockers  covered  with  gold  as  soon  as  a  few 
buckets  of  the  new  dirt  had  been  washed.  They  found  that 
they  were  literally  taking  out  gold  by  the  pound. 

However,  as  the  gold  they  were  getting  was  much  lighter 
in  color  and  weight  than  any  they  had  found  below  on  the 
canon,  or  even  on  the  surface  in  their  cut,  they  began  to  fear 
that  all  was  not  right.  They  thought  that,  after  all,  what  they 
had  found  might  be  some  sort  of  "bogus  stuff" — base  metal  of 
some  new  and  strange  kind. 

It  is  not  strange  that  these  impecunious  miners,  tinkering 
away  there  on  the  side  of  a  lone,  sage-covered  mountain,  with 
their  rockers,  should  have  felt  a  little  alarmed  on  account  of  the 
great  quantity  of  gold  they  were  getting,  as  in  a  few  weeks  after 
the  discovery  had  been  made — and  the  work  had  been  advanced 
further  into  the  croppings  of  the  lode — they  were  taking  out 
gold  at  the  rate  of  $1,000  per  day.  This  they  were  doing  with 
the  rockers.  Taking  the  harder  lumps  left  on  the  screens  of 
the  rockers,  one  man  was  able  to  pound  out  gold  at  the  rate  of 
$100  per  day  in  a  common  hand-mortar. 

In  the  evening  of  the  day  on  which  the  grand  discovery  was 


"OLD  PANCAKE"  ARRIVES.  51 

made  by  O  Riley  and  McLaughlin,  H.  T.  P.  Comstock  made  his 
appearance  upon  the  scene. 

"  Old  Pancake,"  who  was  then  looking  after  his  Gold  Hill  mines, 
which  were  beginning  to  yield  largely,  had  strolled  northward 
up  the  mountain,  toward  evening,  in  search  of  a  mustang  pony 
that  he  had  out  prospecting  for  a  living  among  the  hills.  He 
had  found  his  pony,  had  mounted  him,  and  with  his  long  legs 
dragging  the  tops  of  the  sage-brush,  came  riding  up  just  as  the 
lucky  miners  were  making  the  last  clean-up  of  their  rockers  for 
the  day. 

Comstock,  who  had  a  keen  eye  for  all  that  was  going  on  in  the 
way  of  mining  in  any  place  he  might  visit,  saw  at  a  glance  the 
unusual  quantity  of  gold  that  was  in  sight. 

When  the  gold  caught  his  eye,  he  was  off  the  back  of  his  pony 
in  an  instant.  He  was  soon  down  in  the  thick  of  it  all — 
"  hefting  "  and  running  his  fingers  through  the  gold,  and  picking 
into  and  probing  the  mass  of  strange-looking  "  stuff"  exposed. 

Conceiving  at  once  that  a  wonderful  discovery  of  some  kind 
had  been  made,  Old  Pancake  straightened  himself  up,  as  he 
arose  from  a  critical  examination  of  the  black  mass  in  the  cut, 
wherein  he  had  observed  the  glittering  spangles  of  gold,  and 
coolly  proceeded  to  inform  the  astonished  miners  that  they  were 
working  on  ground  that  belonged  to  him. 

He  asserted  that  he  had  some  time  before  taken  up  160  acres 
of  land  at  this  point,  for  a  ranche ;  also,  that  he  owned  the  water 
they  were  using  in  mining,  it  being  from  the  Caldwell  spring,  in 
what  was  afterwards  known  as  Spanish  Ravine. 

Suspecting  that  they  were  working  in  a  decomposed  quartz 
vein,  McLaughlin  and  O 'Riley  had  written  out  and  posted  up 
a  notice,  calling  for  a  claim  of  300  feet  for  each  and  a  third  claim 
for  the  discovery ;  which  extra  claim  they  were  entitled  to  under 
the  mining  laws. 

Having  soon  ascertained  all  this  from  the  men  before  him, 
Comstock  would  have  "none  of  it."  He  boisterously  declared 
that  they  should  not  work  there  at  all,  unless  they  would  agree 
to  locate  himself  and  his  friend  Manny  (Emmanuel)  Penrod  in 
the  claim.  In  case  he  and  Penrod  were  given  an  interest,  there 
should  be  no  further  trouble  about  the  ground. 

After   consulting   together,  the  discoverers    concluded  that, 


52  QUESTIONABLE    RIGHTS. 

rather  than  have  a  great  row  about  the  matter,  they  would  put 
the  names  of  Comstock  and  Penrod  in  their  notice  of  location. 

This  being  arranged  to  his  satisfaction,  Comstock  next  demand- 
ed that  100  feet  of  ground  on  the  lead  should  be  segregated 
and  given  to  Penrod  and  himself  for  the  right  to  the  water  they 
were  using — he  stoutly  asserting  that  he  not  only  owned  the 
land,  but  also  the  water,  and,  as  they  had  recognized  his  right 
to  the  land,  they  could  not  consistently  ignore  his  claim  to  the 
water  flowing  upon  it.  In  short,  he  talked  so  loudly  and  so 
much  about  his  water-right  that  he  at  last  got  the  100  feet, 
segregated,  as  he  demanded.  This  100  feet  afterwards  became 
the  Spanish  or  Mexican  mine,  and  yielded  millions  of  dollars. 

Comstock  would  probably  not  so  easily  have  obtained  what 
he  demanded,  had  the  men  who  made  the  discovery  been  fully 
aware  of  its  great  value.  They,  however,  did  not  know  that  the 
"blue  stuff"  (sulphuret  of  silver),  which  they  had  dug  into,  was 
of  any  value,  and  even  the  gold  itself  seemed  altogether  too 
plentiful  as  well  as  a  good  deal  "  off  color." 

Comstock  had  probably  at  some  time  posted  up  a  notice 
claiming  160  acres  of  land,  somewhere  in  that  neighborhood, 
as  a  ranche,  but  if  he  did  so  he  never  had  his  notice  recorded. 
Men  in  those  days,  while  roving  about  the  country,  very 
frequently  wrote  out  and  stuck  up  notices  claiming  land, 
springs,  the  water  of.  streams,  quartz  veins,  gravel  deposits, 
or  anything  else  that  they  might  for  the  moment  think  valu- 
able, but  unless  such  claims  were  properly  recorded  and 
worked  they  could  not  be  held,  as  all  miners  and  others  well 
knew — a  mere  notice  expiring  at  the  end  of  ten  days,  when 
the  property  might  be  taken  up,  recorded  and  held  by  the 
first  man  that  came  along.  Comstock  had  some  show  of 
right  to  the  water  and  to  the  placer-mines  along  the  upper 
part  of  Six-mile  Canon,  as  the  year  before,  he,  Old  Virginia 
and  Penrod,  had  bought  of  old  Joe  Caldwell  a  set  of  sluice- 
boxes  and  the  water  of  a  spring.  However,  the  possession  of 
a  set  of  sluices  on  the  canon  and  a  right  to  use  water  from  a 
certain  spring  in  the  neighborhood,  by  no  means  gave  Com- 
stock or  his  friends  the  right  to  lay  claim  to  a  vein  of  quartz 
found  in  a  hill  somewhere  in  their  section  of  the  country. 
John  Bishop,  who  bought  Old  Virginia's  interest  in  the 


AN  UNPROFITABLE  SALE.  53 

sluices,  gravel-diggings  and  water,  got  no  share  of  the  quartz 
vein  discovered  by  Pete  O'Riley  and  Pat  McLaughlin,  though 
he  managed  to  get  in  on  the  lead,  locating  the  mine  known  as 
the  Central  No.  i ;  now  a  part  of  the  California,  one  of  the 
bonanza  mines  with  millions  of  ore  in  sight. 

Bishop  put  up  the  first  arastra  ever  built  on  the  lead,  start- 
ing it  up  two  or  three  days  before  that  of  the  Ophir  folks 
began  running.  He  sold  his  interest  in  the  Central  No.  i. 
for  $4,000  and  shortly  afterwards  the  purchasers  sold  the 
same  ground  for  $1,800  per  foot — now  (as  incorporated  in  the 
California  mine)  the  ground  is  selling  at  over  $50,000  per 
foot,  and  John  Bishop  still  works,  as  a  miner,  at  Gold  Hill. 

After  Comstock  had  managed  to  become  largely  interested 
in  the  new  discovery,  and  after  the  gold  taken  out  by  O'Riley 
and  McLaughlin  had  been  carried  down  to  Gold  Hill  and 
exhibited  and  examined,  there  was  at  once  a  great  local 
excitement  in  regard  to  the  new  diggings,  and  all  were 
anxious  to  get  an  interest  in  the  claim,  or  on  the  lead  as  near 
to  the  original  discovery  as  possible. 

Those  who  were  finally  recorded  in  the  Ophir  notice  as 
original  locators  were  the  following  persons:  Peter  O'Riley, 
Patrick  McLaughlin,  H.  T.  P.  Comstock,  E.  Penrod,  and 
J.  A.  ("Kentuck")  Osborne.  The  men  named  had  one-sixth 
each  of  1,400  feet  of  ground  on  the  lead  and,  in  addition, 
Comstock  and  Penrod  had  TOO  feet  segregated  to  them,  mak- 
ing 1,500  feet  taken  up  by  the  party. 

The  100  feet  of  Comstock  and  Penrod,  though  in  the  midst 
of  the  1,400  feet  of  ground,  was  not  reckoned  as  a  part  of  the 
Ophir  claim  and  was  soon  sold  and  worked  as  a  separate 
mine,  under  the  name  of  the  Mexican  or  Spanish  mine. 

The  Ophir  claim  was  the  first  that  was  located,  as  a  quartz 
claim,  at  any  point  on  the  Comstock  lode,  though  as  early  as 
February  22nd.,  1858,  Old  Virginia  made  a  location  on  a 
large  vein  lying  to  the  westward  of  the  Comstock.  This 
vein  is  known  as  the  Virginia  lead  or  Virginia  croppings. 
It  has  never  yielded  much  ore,  but  contains  vast  quantities  of 
base  metal  of  various  kinds. 

At  one  time  it  was  thought  by  some  that  this  would  prove 
to  be  the  main  or  "mother"  lead  of  the  range,  as  at  the 


54:  LOCKING  UP  "OLD  VIRGINIAN 

surface,  and  for  a  considerable  distance  below  the  surface,  the 
Comstock  vein  dipped  west  toward  it.  Parties  bought  Old 
Virginia's  claim,  and  began  suit  against  the  Ophir  Company, 
asserting  that  the  lead  on  which  they  were  at  work  was  the 
same  as  that  located,  in  1858,  by  Old  Virginia.  It  was  a 
sort  of  speculation  on  the  part  of  those  who  brought  the  suit, 
and  it  is  understood  that  they  succeeded  in  obtaining  $60,000 
from  the  Ophir  Company. 

At  the  beginning  of  this  suit  it  was  necessary,  if  possible, 
to  produce  the  original  notice  placed  upon  the  croppings  of 
the  lead  by  Old  Virginia,  but  the  parties  to  whom  he  had 
sold  his  claim  could  never  get  him  sufficiently  sobered  up  to 
show  where  it  could  be  found.  Growing  desperate,  they  at 
length  seized  the  old  fellow  one  evening,  and  thrusting  him 
into  the  mouth  of  a  big  tunnel,  closed  and  locked  upon  him  a 
heavy  iron  gate.  The  next  morning  when  they  went  to  the 
tunnel  they  found  Old  Virginia  sober,  but  very  savage. 

He  would  say  nor  do  nothing  until  they  had  taken  him 
down  town  and  given  him  half  a  tumbler  of  whisky.  This 
swallowed,  he  was  ready  for  business.  He  marched  directly 
up  the  side  of  the  mountain,  and  going  straight  to  a  large 
tower  of  croppings,  drew  out  a  small  block  of  rock,  and  lo ! 
behind  it  was  seen  snugly  stowed  the  much-desired  notice. 

It  was  probably  on  account  of  his  having  made  this  location 
that  Old  Virginia  was  given  the  credit  of  having  been  the 
discoverer  of  the  Comstock  lode,  his  interest  in  which  he  was 
said  to  have  sold  for  an  old  horse,  a  pair  of  blankets,  and  a 
bottle  of  whisky.  He  sold  a  third  interest  in  the  sluices, 
water,  and  diggings  in  the  canon  to  John  Bishop,  for  $25. 

James  Hart,  who  had  an  interest  in  the  sluices,  and  diggings 
in  the  canon,  sold  his  right  to  be  "  considered  in  "  on  the  big 
discovery  to  J.  D.  Winters,  of  Washoe  Valley,  for  a  horse  and 
$20  in  coin.  In  this  way  Winters  got  into  the  Ophir  as  one  of 
the  locators,  and  from  this  came  the  "  old  horse  "  story  that  has 
always  been  saddled  upon  Old  Virginia — to  fix  it  still  more 
firmly  upon  the  old  fellow,  the  bottle  of  whiskey  was  added. 


d 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    DISCOVERY    OF   SILVER. 

ONCE  Comstock  got  into  the  Ophir  claim  he  elected  him- 
self superintendent  and  was  the  man  who  did  all  of  the 
heavy  talking.  He  made  himself  so  conspicuous  on  every 
occasion  that  he  soon  came  to  be  considered  not  only  the  dis- 
coverer but  almost  the  father  of  the  lode.  As  it  was  all 
Comstock  for  a  considerable  distance  round  the  Ophir  mine, 
people  began  to  speak  of  the  vein  as  Comstock's  mine,  Comstock's 
lode,  and  the  lead  throughout  its  length  and  breadth  came  to  be 
known  as  the  Comstock  lode,  a  name  which  it  bears  to  this  day ; 
while  the  names  of  O'Riley  and  McLaughlin,  the  real  discover- 
ers, are  seldom  heard,  even  in  the  city  that  stands  on  the  spot 
where  they  first  opened  to  the  light  of  the  sun  the  glittering 
treasures  of  the  vein. 

Even  after  the  Ophir  claim  had  been  duly  recorded  and  its 
owners  had  gone  regularly  to  work  upon  it,  they  had  no  idea  that 
the  ore  contained  anything  of  value  except  the  gold  that  was  found 
in  it. 

For  some  weeks  they  dug  down  the  rich  decomposed  silver 
ore,  washed  the  gold  out  of  it,  and  let  it  go  as  waste — throwing  it 
anywhere  to  get  it  out  of  the  way  of  the  rockers.  They  not  only 
did  not  try  to  save  it,  but  they  constantly  and  conscientiously 
cursed  it. 

Being  very  heavy,  it  settled  to  the  bottom  of  their  rockers, 
covered  up  the  quicksilver  they  contained,  and  prevented  the 
thorough  amalgamation  of  the  gold.  The  miners  all  thought 
well  of  the  diggings,  but  for  this  stuff.  It  was  the  great  draw- 
back. In  mining  on  Gold  Canon,  they  had  been  bothered  with 
a  superabundance  of  black  sand  and  heavy  pebbles  of  iron  ore, 
but  this  new,  bluish  sand  was  a  thing  which  they  had  never  before 
encountered  anywhere  in  the  country. 

4:  55 


56  "OLD  PANCAKE'S"   WEAKNESS. 

Notwithstanding  their  trouble  with  the  sulphuret  of  silver, 
they  were  taking  out  gold  at  the  rate  of  a  thousand  dollars  or 
more  per  day;  their  dust  selling  at  about  $11  per  ounce.  In 
some  spots  they  obtained  from  $50  to  $150  in  a  single  pan  of  dirt. 

About  this  time  some  ladies  from  Genoa  visited  the  mine, 
attracted  by  the  reports  which  had  reached  their,  town  of  its 
great  richness.  Comstock  was  delighted,  showed  them  every- 
thing and  very  gallantly  offered  each  lady  a  pan  of  dirt,  a  piece 
of  politeness  customary  in  California  in  the  early  days  when 
ladies  visited  a  mine.  "  Old  Pancake  "  was  anxious  that  each 
of  the  ladies  should  get  something  worth  carrying  home,  there- 
fore by  means  of  sly  nods  and  winks  gave  one  of  the  workmen 
to  understand  that  he  was  to  fill  the  pans  from  the  richest  spot. 

One  of  the  ladies  was  young  and  very  pretty.  Although  the 
other  ladies  had  each  obtained  from  $150  to  $200  in  her  pan, 
Comstock  was  determined  that  something  still  handsomer  should 
be  done  for  this  one.  Therefore,  when  her  pan  of  dirt  was  being 
handed  up  out  of  the  cut  (/.  e.  the  open  drift  run  into  the  lead),  he 
stepped  forward  to  receive  it,  and  as  he  did  so,  slyly  slipped  into 
it  a  large  handful  of  gold  which  he  had  taken  out  of  his  private 
purse.  The  result  was  a  pan  that  went  over  $300,  and  "  Old 
Pancake  was  happy  all  the  rest  of  the  day. 

Although  Comstock  had  a  passion  for  possessing  rich  mines, 
and  appeared  to  have  a  great  greediness  for  gold,  yet  no  sooner 
was  it  in  his  possesion  than  he  was  ready  to  give  it  to  the  first 
man,  woman,  or  child  that  asked  for  it,  or  to  recklessly  squander 
it  in  all  directions.  Anything  that  he  saw  and  took  a  fancy  to 
he  bought,  no  matter  what  the  price  might  be,  so  long  as  he  had 
the  money.  The  article  to  which  he  had  taken  a  momentary 
fancy,  once  purchased,  he  presented  it  to  the  first  person  that  ap- 
peared to  admire  it,  whether  that  person  was  white,  red,  or  black. 

As  work  progressed,  and  the  opening  made  in  the  hillside 
penetrated  further  into  the  lead,  the  silver  sulphuret,  which  had 
at  first  been  found  in  a  decomposed  condition,  began  to  grow 
more  firm.  In  order  to  work  it  in  the  rockers  it  was  necessary 
to  pulverise  much  of  it  by  beating  it  with  the  poll  of  a  pick  or 
sledge-hammer.  Even  then  there  were  many  lumps  which  it 
was  necessary  to  pound  in  a  mortar,  and  soon  much  of  the  ore 
began  to  assume  the  form  of  a  tolerably  firm  rock,  when  it 


AN    ARASTRA. 


NAMING    VIRGINIA    CITY. 


NAMING  THE  TOWN.  59 

became  necessary  to  work  it  in  arastras — an  old  Mexican  con- 
trivance for  grinding  up  gold  and  silver-bearing  quartz. 

As  soon  as  the  grand  strike  had  been  made  at  the  Ophir  mine 
by  O'  Riley  and  McLaughlin,  there  was  a  great  rush  to  that 
neighborhood ;  not  only  of  miners  from  Johntown,  Gold  Hill, 
and  Dayton  (then  known  as  Chinatown),  but  also  from  the  agri- 
cultural sections  of  the  country — from  Washoe  Valley,  Tracker 
Meadow  and  from  Carson  and  Eagle  Valleys. 

Claims  were  taken  up  and  staked  off  for  a  great  distance  north 
and  south  of  the  Ophir  mine  in  the  direction  the  lead  was  shown 
to  run  by  the  huge  croppings  of  quartz  that  came  to  the  surface, 
and  towered  far  above  the  surface,  in  various  places. 

It  was  not  long  before  other  companies  had  found  pay,  and 
soon  there  was  in  the  place  quite  a  lively  little  camp,  the  miners 
living  in  brush  shanties,  houses  made  of  canvas,  or  camping  in 
the  open  air  in  the  sage-brush  flats. 

At  this  time  the  camp  was  spoken  of,  in  documents  placed 
upon  the  records,  as  "  Pleasant  Hill  "  an.d  as  "  Mount  Pleasant 
Point;  "in  August,  1859,  it  was  designated  as  "Ophir"  and 
"  the  settlement  known  as  Ophir,"  and  in  September,  as  "  Ophir 
Diggings."  In  October  the  place  is  first  mentioned  as  "  Virginia 
Town,"  but  a  month  later  it  was  proposed  to  "  change  the  name 
of  the  place  from  Virginia  Town  to  Wun-u-muc-a,  in  honor  of 
the  chief  of  the  Py-utes."  Old  Winnemucca,  chief  of  all  the  Pi- 
utes  was  not  so  honored,  and  in  November,  1859,  the  town  was 
first  called  Virginia  City,  a  name  it  has  ever  since  retained. 

Comstock  says  the  way  the  place  came  to  take  the  name  of 
Virginia  City  was  this  : 

"  'Old  Virginia  '  was  out  one  night  with  a  lot  of  the  "  boys  " 
on  a  drunk,  when  he  fell  down  and  broke  his  whisky  bottle. 
On  rising  he  said — '  I  baptize  this  ground  Virginia." 

For  a  time  the  old  settlers  had  the  new  diggings  all  to  them- 
selves and  were  hard  at  work  with  their  rockers,  saving  only  the 
gold  and  pacing  no  further  attention  to  the  silver  than  to  curse 
it  for  interfering  with  their  operations ;  but  in  a  few  weeks  after 
the  discovery  had  been  made,  there  was  suddenly  stirred  up  in 
California  a  whirlwind  of  excitement  that  swept  over  the  Sierras, 
and  not  only  overwhelmed  these  first  miners  on  the  Comstock, 
but  swept  them  almost  out  of  sight. 


60  AN  ASTO  UN  DING  DISCL  OSURE. 

About  the  ist  of  July,  1859,  Augustus  Harrison,  a  ranchman 
living  on  the  Trucker  Meadows,  visited  the  new  diggings  about 
which  so  much  was  then  said  in  the  several  settlements.  He 
took  a  piece  of  the  ore  and  going  to  California  shortly  afterwards 
carried  it  to  Grass  Valley,  Nevada  county.  He  gave  the  speci- 
men, as  a  curiosity,  to  Judge  James  Walsh,  a  resident  of  Grass 
Valley,  who  took  it  to  the  office  of  Melville  Atwood,  an  assayer 
in  the  town.  The  ore  was  assayed  and  yielded  at  the  rate  of 
several  thousand  dollars  per  ton,  in  gold  and  silver. 

All  were  astonished  and  not  a  little  excited  when  it  was  ascer- 
tained that  the  black-looking  rock  which  the  miners  over  in 
Washoe — as  the  region  about  the  Comstock  lode  was  called — 
considered  worthless,  and  were  throwing  away,  was  almost  a 
solid  mass  of  silver.  The  excitement  by  no  means  abated  when 
they  were  informed  by  Mr.  Harrison  that  there  were  tons  and 
tons  of  the  same  stuff  in  sight  in  the  opening  that  the  Ophir 
Company  had  already  made  in  the  lead.  It  was  agreed  among 
the  few  who  knew  the  result  of  the  assay,  that  the  matter  should, 
for  the  time  being,  be  kept  a  profound  secret;  meantime  they 
would  arrange  to  cross  the  Sierras  and  secure  as  much  ground 
as  possible  on  the  line  of  the  newly-discovered  silver  lode. 

But  each  man  had  intimate  friends  in  whom  he  had  the  utmost 
confidence  in  every  respect,  and  these  bosom  friends  soon  knew 
that  a  silver-mine  of  wonderful  richness  had  been  discovered 
over  in  the  Washoe  country.  These  again  had  their  friends, 
and,  although  the  result  of  the  assay  made  by  Mr.  Atwood  was 
not  ascertained  until  late  at  night,  by  9  o'clock  the  next  morning 
half  the  town  of  Grass  Valley  knew  the  wonderful  news. 

Judge  Walsh  and  Joe  Woodworth  packed  a  mule  with  provis- 
ions, and  mounting  horses,  were  off  for  the  eastern  slope  of  the 
Sierras  at  a  very  early  hour  in  the  morning.  This  was  soon 
known,  and  the  news  of  the  discovery  and  their  departure  ran 
like  wildfire  through  Nevada  county.  In  a  few  days  hundreds 
of  miners  had  left  their  diggings  in  California  and  were  flocking 
over  the  mountains  on  horseback,  on  foot,  with  teams,  and  in  any 
way  that  offered.  Many  men  packed  donkeys  with  tools  and 
provisions,  and,  going  on  foot  themselves,  trudged  over  the 
Sierras  at  the  best  speed  they  were  able  to  make. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

REMINISCENCES   OF    EARLY    MINING    DAYS. 

WHEN  news  began  to  be  received  in  various  parts  of  Cali- 
fornia from  the  first  parties  of  these  adventurers,  upon 
their  arrival  in  Washoe,  their  reports  were  confirmatory 
of  all  that  had  before  been  said  and  imagined  of  the  new  mines, 
and  an  almost  unparalled  excitement  followed.    Miners,  business 
men,  and  capitalists  flocked  to  the  wonderful  land  of  silver  that 
had  been  found  in  the  wilderness  of  Washoe,  beyond  the  snowy 
peaks  of  the  Sierras. 

The  few  hardy  first  prospectors  soon  counted  their  neighbors 
by  thousands,  and  found  eager  and  excited  newcomers  jostling 
them  on  every  hand,  planting  stakes  under  their  very  noses 
and  running  lines  round  or  through  their  brush-shanties,  as 
regardless  of  their  presence  as  though  they  were  Piutes.  The 
handful  of  old  settlers  found  themselves  strangers,  almost  in  a 
single  day,  in  their  own  land  and  their  own  dwellings. 

There  were  numerous  sales  of  mining  claims  almost  daily, 
at  what  then  was  thought  high  prices,  and  the  hundreds  who 
were  unprovided  with  money  with  which  to  purchase  mining 
ground  swarmed  the  hills  in  search  of  ledges  that  were  still 
undiscovered  and  unclaimed.  The  whole  country  was  sup- 
posed to  be  full  of  silver  lodes  as  rich  as  the  Comstock,  and 
the  man  who  was  so  fortunate  as  to  find  a  large  unoccupied 
vein,  containing  rock  of  a  color  similar  to  that  of  the  Ophir, 
•considered  his  fortune  made. 

The  Mining  Recorder  of  the  district  now  drove  a  thriving 
trade;  he  could  hardly  record  the  locations  of  mining  claims 
as  fast  as  they  were  made. 

Some  of  these  notices  were  literary  curiosities,  particularly 
those  to  be  found  in  the  old  Gold  Hill  book  of  records. 

61 


62  THE  OLD  RECORD  BOOK. 

V.  A.  Houseworth,  the  "village  blacksmith,"  was  the  first 
Recorder  at  Gold  Hill,  and  the  book  of  records  was  kept  at  a 
saloon,  where  it  lay  upon  a  shelf  behind  the  bar. 

The  "boys"  were  in  the  habit  of  taking  it  from  behind  the 
bar  whenever  they  desired  to  consult  it,  and  if  they  thought  a 
location  made  by  them  was  not  advantageously  bounded  they 
altered  the  course  of  their  lines  and  fixed  the  whole  thing  up 
in  good  shape,  in  accordance  with  the  latest  developments. 

When  the  book  was  not  wanted  for  this  use,  those  lounging 
about  the  saloon  were  in  the  habit  of  snatching  it  up  and 
"batting"  each  other  over  the  head  with  it. 

The  old  book  is  now  in  the  office  of  the  County  Recorder, 
at  Virginia  City,  and  is  beginning  to  be  regarded  as  quite  as 
curiosity.  It  shows  altered  dates,  places  where  leaves  have 
been  torn  out,  and  much  other  rough  usage. 

The  majority  of  the  notices  of  location  recorded  by  the 
early  miners  are  very  vague.  The  first  notice  recorded  in  the 
book  is  one  of  the  location  of  a  spring  of  water  by  Peter 
O'Riley  and  Patrick  McLaughlin.  It  reads: 

"We  the  undersigned  claim  this  spring  and  stream,  for  mining  purposes." 
Nothing  is  said  about  where  the  spring  is  located.  For 
aught  the  person  reading  the  record  can  discover,  it  may  be 
in  California  or  Oregon. 

In  the  book  are  scores  of  locations  made  and  recorded  in 
the  same  loose  manner.  Many  of  the  recorded  notices  read : 
"  We  the  undersigned  claim  2,000  feet  on  this  quartz  lead,  ledge,  lode,  or 
vein,  beginning  at  this  stake  and  running  north." 

Not  a  word  is  said  about  where  the  stake  is  to  be  found. 
No  wonder  that  the  lawyers  drove  a  thriving  trade  in  the 
early  days  of  Washoe ! 

During  the  progress  of  a  mining  suit  in  the  early  days  the 
lawyers  quarrelled  for  nearly  two  days  about  a  certain  stump 
from  which  one  of  the  parties  to  the  suit  desired  to  begin  the 
measurement  of  their  claim.  They  produced  witnesses  who 
said  they  could  identify  the  stump,  and  the  next  morning  the 
court  adjourned,  and  jury  and  all  concerned  went  out  to  take 
a  look  at  the  landmark  in  question.  No  stump  could  be 
found.  The  parties  of  the  opposite  side  had  dug  it  up  the 
night  before  and  packed  it  away.  Not  even  the  spot  where  it 


STRANGE  NOTICES.  63 

was  supposed  to  have  stood  could  be  found,  so  completely 
had  the  ground  been  levelled  in  all  directions. 

I  give  the  following  verbatim  copy  of  the  original  location- 
notice  of  the  Yellow- Jacket  mine — a  mine  that  has  yielded 
many  millions  of  dollars — as  it  stands  on  the  old  Gold  Hill 

records : 

NOTICE. 

That  we  the  undersign  claim  Twelve  hundred  (1200)  feet  of  this  Quartz 
Vain  including  of  of  its  depths  &  Spurs  commencing  at  Houseworth  claim 
&  running  north  including  twenty-five  feet  of  surface  on  each  Side  of  the 
Vain.  This  Vain  is  known  as  the  Yellow  Jacket  Vain.  Taken  up  on  May 
1st.  1859 — recorded  June  27th,  '59. 

H.   B.  CAMP. 
JOHN  BISHOP. 

The  claim  was  called  the  Yellow  Jacket  because  of  the  fact 
of  the  locators  finding  a  nest  of  yellow-jackets  in  the  surface 
rock  while  they  were  digging  about  for  the  purpose  of  pros- 
pecting the  vein.  Future  developments  proved  this  claim  to 
be  on  the  Comstock  lode. 

What  the  locators  meant  by  "  depths,"  in  their  notice,  was 
dips — no  matter  in  what  direction  the  "vain"  might  dip,  they 
desired  to  put  on  record  their  right  to  follow  it. 

Many  notices  read — "This  vein  with  all  of  its  dips,  spurs, 
angles,  and  variations."  The  word  *  variations'  was  presumed  to 
capture  everything  in  the  vicinity. 

A  practice  prevailed  among  the  early  miners  of  locating 
quartz  ledges  as  "twins."  This  was  when  they  found  two 
parallel  veins  so  near  together  that  they  feared,  in  case  of 
their  locating  but  one,  that  parties  would  take  up  the  other 
and  give  them  trouble  in  some  way.  None  of  the  twins  ever 
became  famous. 

The  owners  of  the  Ophir,  and  some  of  the  adjoining  claims 
on  the  Comstock  lead,  continued  to  use  rockers  and  arastras 
for  some  time  after  it  was  ascertained  that  what  was  at 
first  supposed  to  be  worthless,  was  silver  ore  of  the  richest 
description,  but  they  no  longer  threw  the  "blue  stuff" 
away.  It  was  all  saved  and  sacked  up  for  shipment  to  San 
Francisco,  thence  to  England  for  reduction.  Many  arastras 
were  running,  and  the  camp  soon  presented  quite  a  bustling 
appearance.  The  first  house  erected  in  Virginia  City,  was  buiJt 


64  CURIOUS  HOMES. 


by  Lyman  Jones,  who  is  still  a  resident  of  Nevada.  It  was 
a  canvas  structure,  18  x  40  feet  in  size,  and  stood  near  the 
present  corner  of  B  Street  and  Sutton  Avenue,  at  no  great 
distance  from  the  Ophir  Mine. 

It  was  kept  as  a  boarding-house  and  saloon.  Mr.  Jones 
opened  his  house  with  two  barrels  of  "  straight  "  whisky,  but 
being  of  an  accommodating  disposition  and  wishing  to  suit  all 
tastes,  he  dignified  the  contents  of  one  of  these  barrels  with  the 
name  of  brandy.  As  alcohol  was  the  foundation  of  nearly  all 
the  liquors  seen  in  the  country  at  that  time,  it  made  little 
difference  by  what  name  they  were  announced  to  the  consumer, 
Mr.  Jones  had  an  old  sluice-box  for  a  bar,  and  the  bar  fixtures 
were  by  no  means  numerous  or  costly. 

At  this  time  the  Ophir  Company  were  in  the  habit  of  bringing 
their  gold-dust  to  Mr.  Jones's  house,  and  leaving  it  for  safe-keep- 
ing, and  frequently  he  had  in  his  place  as  high  as  twenty  and 
thirty  thousand  dollars. 

As  the  walls  of  his  "  hotel "  were  constructed  of  nothing  more 
substantial  than  a  single  thickness  of  cotton  cloth,  safer  places 
might  have  been  conceived  of,  in  which  to  deposit  such  an 
amount  of  gold.  At  length,  when  the  grand  rush  from  Califor- 
nia came,  and  adventurers  of  all  kinds  swarmed  along  the  lode, 
Mr.  Jones  refused  to  any  longer  act  in  the  capacity  of  banker 
to  the  Ophir  folks,  as  he  did  not  care  to  run  the  risk  of  having 
his  throat  cut  for  gold  not  his  own, — in  fact  did  not  want  his 
throat  cut  at  all. 

At  first  it  was  almost  impossible  to  procure  lumber  of  any 
kind  for  building  purposes,  and  the  houses  erected  were  prin- 
cipally of  canvas ;  though  a  few  rough  stone-houses  were 
soon  built  and  the  miners  constructed  cabins  of  the  rough  rocks 
lying  about  on  the  sides  of  the  hills.  Many  dug  holes  a  few 
feet  square  in  the  sides  of  steep  banks,  and  covering  these  with 
a  roof  of  sage-bush  and  dirt  announced  themselves  "  at  home  " 
to  their  friends. 

As  winter  came  on,  not  a  few  who  had  been  living  in  tents  or 
the  open  air,  betook  themselves  for  shelter  to  the  tunnels  they 
had  begun  to  run  into  the  hills;  widening  out  a  place  at  some 
distance  back  from  the  mouth  for  bedroom  and  parlor. 

Some  of  those  who  thus  made  habitations  of  tunnels  did  their 


A  MODERN  ROBINSON  CRUSOE.  65 

cooking  in  the  open  air,  under  a  brush-shed  placed  in  front ; 
others,  displaying  more  industry  and  ingenuity,  made  a  kitchen 
some  distance  back  in  their  underground  quarters,  working  a 
hole  up  to  the  surface  of  the  earth,  through  which  the  smoke  of 
their  fire  found  egress,  presenting  the  curious  appearance  of  a 
small  semi-active  volcano,  when  seen  at  a  distance  by  one  who 
knew  nothing  of  the  subterranean  lodging-house  whence  the 
smoke  proceeded. 

A  Scotchman  tunnelled  into  a  hill  of  dry  and  soft  rock  near 
Silver  City  and  excavated  a  habitation  in  which  he  dwelt  for 
years,  and  in  which  he  finally  died.  He  worked  out  several 
chambers  of  considerable  size  in  the  rock,  one  of  which  was  his 
library  and  contained  three  or  four  hundred  volumes  of  books, 
principally  of  a  religious  character. 

His  place  was  on  a  secluded  ravine,  a  mile  from  the  town, 
and  he  led  the  life  of  a  hermit ;  indeed,  his  home  not  a  little 
resembled  the  rock-dwelling  of  Robinson  Crusoe.  He  had 
been  educated  for  the  ministry  in  his  youth,  and  now  in  his  old 
age,  became  again  a  student  and  gave  nearly  his  whole  time  to 
pious  meditations.  During  pleasant  weather,  in  summer,  the 
ladies  of  Silver  City  frequently  visited  the  recluse  on  the  Sab- 
bath, when,  sitting  on  a  bench  at  the  mouth  of  his  subterranean 
habitation,  he  would  talk  beautiful  sermons  to  them. 

In  1859,  when  the  discovery  of  silver  was  made,  the  only 
wagon-road  in  all  the  country  was  the  old  Emigrant  Road ; 
coming  in  across  the  Plains,  passing  through  Carson  Valley  and 
thence  ascending  and  crossing  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains 
to  California,  by  the  way  of  Placerville. 

Virginia  City  being  situated  on  a  sort  of  sloping  plateau, 
on  the  eastern  face  of  Mount  Davidson,  at  the  height  of  over 
6000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  was  a  place  difficult  of 
access.  Wagons  could  be  used  in  the  surrounding  valleys, 
but  Virginia  City  could  receive  no  freight  except  such  as 
could  be  carried  up  the  mountain  on  the  backs  of  pack-mules. 
Soon  after  the  discovery  of  silver,  however,  companies  located 
routes  for  wagon-roads  to  the  place,  and  began  the  difficult 
work  of  building  them,  blasting  out  passage-ways  in  many 
places  through  solid  rock  along  the  sides  of  canons  shut  in  by 
almost  perpendicular  walls.  Men  swarmed  on  these  roads 


66  BEFORE  THE   WORLD. 

during  their  construction,  the  explosion  of  heavy  blasts  was 
almost  constant  along  the  canons,  and  it  was  not  many 
months  before  they  were  completed,  when  lumber,  timber, 
and  many  other  much-needed  articles,  that  could  not  be 
packed  on  the  backs  of  mules,  poured  into  Virginia  City 
whose  streets  were  soon  crowded  with  huge  "prairie  schoon- 
ers"— as  the  great  mountain  wagons  are  called — drawn  by 
long  lines  of  mules  or  horses,  all  musical  with  bells. 

The  completion  of  a  practicable  wagon-road  to  Virginia 
City  was  at  that  time  considered  a  great  achievement,  but 
now  locomotives  rush  and  shriek  round  the  mountain  steeps 
up  which  the  patient  mules  tugged  and  groaned  in  former 
days. 

While  the  wagon-roads  were  being  built,  the  miners  were 
not  idle.  Supplies  for  their  use  could  readily  be  packed  up 
the  mountain,  and  the  rich  silver  ore,  securely  sewed  up  in 
canvas  bags,  made  convenient  return  loads  for  the  trains  of 
pack-mules.  In  a  month  or  two  the  several  companies  work- 
ing on  the  Comstock  discontinued  the  use  of  rockers  and 
arastras.  The  richest  of  their  ore  was  sacked  up  and  sold  for 
shipment  to  Europe,  and  that  of  a  lower  grade  was  piled  up 
in  dumps  and  ore-bins  to  be  worked  in  mills  in  the  country 
at  some  future  day. 

The  following  extract  from  the  Territorial  Enterprise,  then 
published  as  a  weekly  newspaper  at  Genoa  (it  is  now  pub- 
lished as  a  daily  and  weekly  at  Virginia  City,  and  is  the 
leading  paper  of  the  city  and  state),  will  give  some  idea 
of  what  was  being  done  three  months  after  the  discovery. 
The  item  was  published  on  Saturday,  October  i,  under  the 
title  of  "  The  Mines : " 

"  The  mines  at  Virginia  Town  and  Gold  Hill  are  exceeding  the  most  san- 
guine expectations  of  their  owners.  At  Virginia  Town,  particularly,  the 
claims  on  the  main  leads  promise  to  excel  in  richness  the  far-famed  Allison 
lead  in  California  in  its  palmiest  days. 

"Claims  are  changing  hands  at  almost  fabulous  prices.  No  fictitious  sales 
either,  but  bona-jide  business  operation.  The  main  lead,  on  which  is  the 
celebrated  Comstock  and  other  claims,  appears  to  be  composed  of  ores  pro- 
ducing both  silver  and  gold,  and  the  more  it  is  prospected  the  richer  it  is 
proving. 

"  Donald  Davidson  &  Co.,  of  San  Francisco,  have  purchased  200  tons  of  the 
rock,  containing  gold  and  silver  in  conjunction,  at  $2,000  per  ton,  and  are 


MILLS  AND  ARASTRAS. 


69 


shipping  it  to  England  by  way  of  San  Francisco,  for  assay.  (Smelting  is 
meant).  Other  parties  are  investing  heavily.  All  that  are  now  interested 
are  but  making  preliminary  arrangements  for  next  spring,  when  we  may 
expect  to  find  an  amount  of  either  dust  or  ore  sent  from  that  section  that 
will  astonish  some  of  the  now  incredulous  ones  in  California," 

They  were  not  only  selling  and  shipping  large  quantities 
of  ore  at  this  time,  but  were  also  beginning  to  work  x>res  in 
mills  and  water-power  arastras  on  the  Carson  River,  near 
Dayton.  In  October,  1859,  Logan  &  Holmes  had  a  four- 
stamp  mill  in  operation  (by  horse-power)  at  Dayton,  which 
crushed  four  tons  of  ore  per  day,  and  Messrs.  Hastings  & 
Woodworth  had  two  water-power  arastras  running,  which 
reduced  three  tons  each  per  day.  The  ore  being  worked  by 
these  mills  was  from  Gold  Hill,  where  the  ore  of  the  vein  as 
yet  contained  only  gold,  they  not  yet  having  penetrated  to  a 
sufficient  depth  to  reach  the  silver. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE   FATE   OF    THE   DISCOVERERS. 

ALTHOUGH   occupying  the  western  portion  of  Utah 
Territory,  the   laws   under  which   the   people   of  the 
Comstock  range  were  at  this  time  living  were  of  their 
own  making.     At  a  meeting  held  by  the  miners  of  Gold  Hill, 
June  u,  1859,  the  following  preamble  and  "rules  and  regula- 
tions" were  unanimously  adopted: 

At  the  present  day  all  manner  of  gambling  games  are 
allowed  by  the  State  laws  and  are  licensed  by  the  towns  and 
cities.  In  the  original  document,  preserved  in  the  old  Gold 
Hill  book  of  records,  there  are  given  several  additional  sec- 
tions, but  as  they  relate  to  matters  not  of  interest  to  the 
general  reader  I  have  omitted  them.  One  of  these  provides 
that  "No  Chinaman  shall  hold  a  claim  in  this  district." 

Whereas,  The  isolated  position  we  occupy  far  from  all  legal  tribunals,  and 
cut  off  from  those  fountains  of  justice  which  every  American  citizen  should 
enjoy — renders  it  necessary  that  we  organize  in  body  politic  for  our  mutual 
protection  against  the  lawless  and  for  meting  out  justice  between  man  and 
man,  therefore  we,  citizens  of  Gold  Hill,  do  hereby  agree  to  adopt  the  follow- 
ing rules  and  laws  for  our  government — 

RULES  AND  REGULATIONS. 

SEC.  I.  Any  person  who  shall  wilfully  and  with  malice  aforethought  take 
the  life  of  any  person,  shall,  upon  being  duly  convicted  thereof,  suffer  the 
penalty  of  death  by  hanging. 

SEC.  2.  Any  person  who  shall  wilfully  wound  another,  shall  upon  convic- 
tion thereof,  suffer  such  penalty  as  the  jury  may  determine. 

SEC.  3.  Any  person  found  guilty  of  robbery  or  theft,  shall,  upon  convic- 
tion, be  punished  with  stripes  or  banishment,  as  the  jury  may  determine. 

SEC.  4.  Any  person  found  guilty  of  assault  and  battery,  or  exhibiting 
deadly  weapons,  shall,  upon  conviction,  be  fined  or  banished,  as  the  jury  may 
determine. 

70 


THIEVES!  71 


SEC.  5.  No  banking  games,  under  any  consideration,  shall  be  allowed  in 
this  district,  under  the  penalty  of  final  banishment  from  the  district. 

At  the  present  day  all  manner  of  gambling  games  are  allowed 
by  the  State  laws  and  are  licensed  by  the  towns  and  cities.  In 
the  original  documents,  preserved  in  the  old  Gold  Hill  book  of 
records,  there  are  given  several  additional  sections,  but  as  they 
relate  to  matters  not  of  general  interest  to  the  reader  I  have 
omitted  them.  One  of  these  provides  that  "  No  Chinaman  shall 
hold  a  claim  in  this  district." 

As  may  be  seen,  the  laws  of  the  first  settlers  were  few  and  to  the 
point ;  they  were  for  use,  not  for  ornament  or  the  puzzling  of  the 
common  understanding  In  each  settlement  were  in  force  some 
such  "  rules  and  regulations  "  as  these.  The  man  who  broke 
one  of  the  "  rules  "  was  sure  to  suffer  a  strict  enforcement  of  the 
"regulations." 

In  August,  1859,  two  thieves  who  gave  the  names  of  George 
Ruspas  and  David^Reise,  stole  a  yoke  of  cattle  at  Chinatown 
(now  Dayton),  and  driving  them  to  Washoe  Valley,  offered  them 
for  sale  at  a  price  so  low  that  they  were  at  once  suspected  of 
having  stolen  the  animals.  They  were  arrested,  and  it  having 
been  proved  that  the  cattle  had  been  stolen  from  the  ranche  of 
a  Mr.  Campbell,  near  Dayton,  the  sentence  of  the  jury  was  that 
they  have  their  left  ears  cut  off,  and  that  they  be  banished  the 
country. 

The  trial  was  held  under  a  big  pine-tree,  near  the  western 
shore  of  Washoe  Lake,  at  the  base  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mount- 
ains. Jim  Sturtevant,  an  old  resident  of  Washoe  Valley,  was 
appointed  executioner.  He  drew  out  a  big  knife,  ran  his  thumb 
along  the  blade,  and  not  finding  its  edge  just  to  his  mind,  gave 
it  a  few  rakes  across  a  rock.  He  then  walked  up  to  Reise  and 
taking  a  firm  hold  on  the  upper  part  of  the  organ  designated 
by  the  jury,  shaved  it  off,  close  up,  at  a  single  slash. 

As  he  approached  Ruspas,  the  face  of  that  gentleman  was 
observed  to  wear  a  cunning  smile.  He  seemed  very  much 
amused  about  something.  The  executioner,  however,  meant 
business,  and  tossing  Reise's  ear  over  to  the  jury,  who  sat  at  the 
root  of  the  pine,  he  went  after  that  of  Ruspas,  whose  eyes  were 
following  every  motion  made  and  whose  face  wore  the  expression 
of  that  of  a  man  about  to  say  or  do  a  good  thing. 


72  AN  UNPLEASANT  JOKE. 

Sturtevant  pulled  aside  the  fellow's  hair,  which  he  wore  hang- 
ing down  about  his  shoulders,  and  lo !  there  was  no  left  ear,  it 
having  been  parted  with  on  some  previous  and  similar  occasion. 

Here  was  a  fix  for  the  executioner !  His  instructions  were  to 
cut  off  the  fellow's  left  ear,  but  there  was  no  left  ear  on  which  to 
operate. 

The  prisoner  now  looked  him  in  the  face  and  laughed  aloud. 
The  joke  was  so  good  that  he  could  no  longer  restain  himself. 

Sturtevant  appealed  to  the  jury  for  instructions.  The  jury 
were  enjoying  the  scene  not  a  little,  and  being,  in  a  good  humor, 
said  that  they  would  reconsider  their  sentence  ;  that  rather  than 
anyone  should  be  disappointed  the  executioner  might  take  off 
the  prisoner's  right  ear,  if  he  had  one. 

The  smile  faded  out  of  the  countenance  of  Ruspas  as  he  felt 
Sturtevant's  fingers  securing  a  firm  hold  on  the  top  of  his  right 
ear.  An  instant  after,  Sturtevant  gave  a  vigorous  slash,  and  then 
tossed  Ruspas,  ear  over  to  the  jury,  saying  as  he  did  so,  that  they 
now  had  a  pair  of  ears  that  were  "  rights  and  lefts  "  and  therefore 
properly  mated. 

This  little  ceremony  over,  the  pair  of  thieves  were  directed  to 
take  the  road  leading  over  the  Sierras  to  the  beautiful  "  Golden 
State."  They  went,  not  as  Adam  and  Eve  left  paradise,  "  drop- 
ping some  natural  tears,"  but  as  a  pair  of  twin  lambs  are  seen  to 
depart  when  in  the  spring-time  the  farmer  has  whacked  off  their 
too  luxuriant  tails — went  dropping  blood. 

There  have  been  numerous  stories  told  in  regard  to  the  amount 
of  money  received  by  Comstock  for  his  interest  in  the  Ophir 
mine  and  other  mining  property  on  the  Comstock  lode  at  Vir- 
ginia City,  some  of  which  are  far  from  the  truth.  The  sale 
made  by  Comstock  to  Judge  Walsh  is  recorded  in  the  books  of 
Virginia  mining  district  and  is  dated  at  the  "  mining  -village 
or  settlement  known  as  Ophir,"  August  12,  1859.  I  make  the 
following  extract  in  regard  to  the  amount  to  be  paid — and  what 
was  eventually  paid : 

"  For  and  in  consideration  of  $10  to  me  in  hand  paid,  and  for  the  further 
consideration  of  ten  thousand  nine  hundred  and  ninety  dollars  to  be  paid  by 
James  Walsh,  according  to  the  provisions  and  terms  of  an  obligation  executed 
by  him  to  me  this  day/I  have  bargained  and  sold,"  etc. 

The  description  of  the  property  sold  is  as  follows : 

"  One  undivided  one-sixth  part  of  1400  feet,  said  1400  feet  being  now 


SALES  OF  MINING  PROPERTY.  73 

worked  by  myself,  Penrod,  Osborne,  McLaughlin,  Riley,  and  other  owners,  and 
known  as  Comstock  &  Co.'s  claims,  and  owned  jointly  by  myself,  James  Gary 
and  others  our  associates  ;  also,  one  undivided  half  of  200  feet  of  mining  ground 
being  worked  by  the  California  Company  at  the  present  time  under  an  agree- 
ment made  with  me  ;  also,  all  my  right,  title,  and  interest  in  and  to  certain 
mining  claims  at  Six-mile  Canon  digging's,  being  the  claims  known  as  the 
Caldwell  claims  ;  also,  one-half  the  water-right  known  as  the  Caldwell  Springs, 
situated  on  the  hill  above  the  said  village  of  Ophir,  and  being  the  springs 
supplying  the  workings  on  the  first-mentioned  1,400  feet — the  present  owners 
in  said  1,400  feet  being  only  entitled  to  the  use  of  said  water  so  long  as  they 
continue  to  be  owners  ;  also  my  recorded  title,  to  a  ranche  on  which  the 
aforesaid  village  of  Ophir  is  located,  together  with  the  springs  on  the  lower 
part  of  said  ranche.  Also,  the  surface-diggings  on  the  first-mentioned  1,400 
feet  and  one-sixth  of  all  improvements,  animals,  arastras,  and  all  other  property 
belonging  to  the  company  working  the  first-mentioned  1,400  feet." 

If  Comstock  had  a  ranche  recorded  which  covered  the  site  of 
Virginia  City,  the  page  containing  such  record  must  have  been 
one  in  the  old  book  of  records  of  Gold  Hill  district.  At  first  all 
claims  located  in  Virginia  district  were  recorded  at  Gold  Hill. 

September  23, 1859,  Pat  McLaughlin,  one  of  the  discoverers  of 
the  silver,  sold  his  interest,  one-sixth,  in  the  Ophir  mine  for 
$3,500.  Peter  O'Riley,  the  other  original  discoverer,  held  on 
to  his  interest  in  the  mine  longer  than  any  of  the  original  loca- 
tors, and  received  for  it  about  $40,000,  with  back  dividends 
amounting  to  four  or  five  thousand  dollars.  Osborne  received 
$7,000  for  his  ground. 

V.  A.  Houseworth,  the  recorder  at  Gold  Hill,  who  had  trade 
for  one-fourth  of  one-sixth  interest  in  the  mine,  sold  that  interest 
to  Judge  Walsh,  in  September,  1859,  for  $3,000.  All  of  thesemen 
supposed  at  the  time  that  they  were  obtaining  a  big  price  for  their 
interests  in  the  mine.  They  knew  nothing  about  silver-mines 
and  feared  that  the  deposit  discovered  might  suddenly  "  peter  " 
out. 

November  30,  1859,  E.  Penrod  sold  to  Gabriel  Maldarnardo, 
a  Mexican  miner,  his  interest  in  the  TOO  feet  of  ground  segrega- 
ted to  himself  and  Comstock,  at  the  time  the  Ophir  mine  was 
located.  The  deed  given  on  this  occasion  is  quite  a  curiosity 
It  shows  that  the  legal  genius  who  drew  it  up  was  determined  to 
corral  all  that  was  in  sight  in  the  way  of  "  tenements,  heredita- 
ments "  and  "  appurtenances."  It  reads : 

"  For  and  in  consideration  of  $3,000,  to  him  in  hand  paid,  this  day,  E. 


74:  SMELTING  ON  A  SMALL  SCALE. 

Penrod  has  remised,  released,  and  quit-claimed,  and  by  these  presents  do 
remise,  release  and  quitclaim  unto  said  party  of  the  second  part  and  his 
heirs  and  assigns  forever,  all  his  right,  title,  and  interest  in  and  to  the  undivi- 
ded one-half  of  one  hundred  feet  of  a  certain  Quartz  Lead  known  as  the 
reserved  claim  of  Comstock,  Penrod,  £  Co.,  on  the  original  location  of  the 
said  company  at  Virginia  City,  near  theliead  of  Six-mile  Canon,  in  Virginia 
Mining  District,  said  Territory  of  Utah,  said  claim  known  as  the  Spanish 
claim,  together  with  all  and  singular  the  tenements,  hereditaments  and  appur- 
tenances thereunto  belonging,  or  in  anywise  appertaining,  and  the  reversion 
and  reversions,  remainder  and  remainders,  rents,  dues,  and  profits  thereof. 
And,  also,  all  the  estate,  right,  title,  interest,  property,  possession,  claim,  and 
demand  whatsoever,  as  well  in  law  as  in  equity,  of  said  party  of  the  first  part, 
of,  in,  or  to  the  above-described  premises,  and  every  part  and  parcel  thereof, 
with  the  appurtences,  to  have  and  to  hold,  all  and  singular  the  above-mentioned 
and  described  premises,  together  with  the  appurtenances,  unto  the  said  party 
of  the  second  part,  to  his  heirs  and  assigns  forever." 

•  This  tremendous  document  held  the  property,  and  Maldar- 
nardo  soon  after  coming  into  possession  of  it,  erected  two 
small  smelting-furnaces  and  began  working  the  ore  of  the  mine 
after  the  Mexican  fashion. 

The  furnaces  would  hold  but  about  fifty  pounds  of  ore  eachy 
yet  he  managed  to  melt  out  a  considerable  amount  of  bullion — 
gold  and  silver  mingled.  The  bullion,  as  it  came  from  the  fur- 
nace, was  worth  about  $2.25  per  ounce.  The  blast  for  the 
furnace  was  furnished  by  means  of  a  common  blacksmith's  bel- 
lows. It  was  a  slow  process,  and  was  soon  abandoned,  though 
quite  a  number  of  cakes  of  bullion  of  considerable  value  were 
shipped  to  San  Francisco  during  the  time  the  furnaces  were 
in  operation. 


COMSTOCK'S  AFFINITY. 


RETURN  OF  COMSTOCK'S  WIFE. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

COMSTOCK'S  MATRIMONIAL  VENTURE. 

A  SHORT  time  before  he  sold  his  mining  interests  in  Vir- 
ginia City,  Comstock  was  smitten  by  the  tender  passion 
and  made  a  venture  in  the  matrimonial  time.  It  appears 
that  a  Mormon  from  Salt  Lake,  a  little  sore-eyed  fellow  named 
Carter,  landed  at  the  diggings  one  day  with  his  wife  and  all 
his  worldly  effects  on  board  of  a  dilapidated  wagon,  drawn  by 
a  pair  of  sorry  nags. 

The  man  said  he  desired  to  go  to  work,  and  if  he  could  find 
employment  would  take  up  his  residence  in  the  diggings. 

Comstock  looked  upon  the  fair  features  of  the  wife,  and  his 
susceptible  heart  was  touched — his  soul  went  out  toward  her  as 
she  sat  there  in  the  end  of  the  little  canvas-covered  wagon, 
mournfully  gazing  out  from  the  depths  of  her  calico  sun-bonnet. 
Having  charge  of  the  Ophir  mine,  as  superintendent,  Comstock 
hired  the  man  and  set  him  to  work,  being  determined  to  keep  the 
woman  in  the  camp. 

The  Mormon  pair  made  their  home  in  their  wagon,  and  in 
the  course  of  a  week  or  two  it  was  observed  that  Comstock 
spent  most  of  his  time  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  vehicle,  was 
all  the  time  hanging  about  it.  Finally  he  was  one  day  seen 
seated  upon  the  wagon  tongue,  smiling  upon  all  nature,  with  the 
Mormon  wife  engaged  in  combing  his  hair.  The  next  morning 
both  Comstock  and  the  wife  were  mrssing.  The  hair-combing 
had  meant  business — showed  the  sealing  of  a  compact  of  some 
kind.  The  pair  had  made  a  bee-line  for  Washoe  Valley,  where 
a  preacher  acquaintance  of  Comstock's — one  of  the  old  settlers 
of  the  country — married  them  after  the  manner  of  the  "  Gentiles." 

5  n 


78  UOLD  PANCAKE  "  COSTING. 

The  next  day  Comstock  and  bride  went  to  Carson  City,  and 
while  there  receiving  the  congratulations  of  friends,  the  Mormon 
husband  suddenly  appeared  upon  the  scene. 

There  was  for  a  time  a  considerable  amount  of  blowing  on 
both  sides,  Comstock  producing  his  certificate  of  marriage  and 
asserting  that  it  was  the  right  he  stood  upon.  Finally,  to  settle 
the  difficulty,  Comstock  agreed  to  give  the  ex-husband  a  horse, 
a  revolver,  and  $60  in  money  for  the  woman,  and  so  have  no 
more  bother. 

This  was  agreed  to  and  Carter  took  the  "consideration  "  and 
started  off.  After  he  had  gone  a  distance  of  two  or  three  hundred 
yards,  Comstock  shouted  after  him  and  told  him  to  come  back. 
When  he  had  returned,  Comstock  demanded  of  him  a  bill  of 
sale  for  his  wife,  saying  that  the  right  way  to  do  business  was 
"  up  and  up ;  "  he  wanted  no  "  after-claps  " — didn't  wish  to  be 
obliged  to  pay  for  the  woman  a  dozen  times  over. 

Carter  then  made  out  and  signed  a  regular  bill  of  sale,  which 
Comstock  put  in  his  wallet  and  then  waved  the  man  away. 

In  a  few  days  Comstock  had  business  at  San  Francisco.  He 
left  his  bride  at  Carson  City  and  started  over  the  mountains. 
When  he  had  reached  Sacramento,  word  was  sent  him  that  his 
wife  had  run  away  with  a  seductive  youth  of  the  town,  and  that 
the  pair  were  on  their  way  to  California  by  the  Placerville  route. 

Comstock  was  all  activity  as  soon  as  this  news  reached  him. 
He  engaged  the  services  of  half  a  dozen  Washoe  friends  whom 
he  found  at  Sacramento,  and  all  hands  hastened  to  Placerville, 
where  they  waited  for  the  runaways,  who  were  on  foot,  to  come  in. 

In  due  season  they  arrived  and  were  pounced  upon.  Com- 
stock and  his  wife  had  a  long  talk  in  private. 

At  length  Comstock  made  his  appearance  and  told  his  friends 
that  it  was  all  right,  there  would  be  no  more  trouble,  as  his  wife 
was  sorry  for  what  she  had  done  and  would  now  live  with  him 
right  along  and  be  a  good  wife  to  him.  All  congratulated  "  Old 
Pancake  "  upon  having  brought  his  affairs  to  a  conclusion  so 
satsfactory 

Wishing  to  bring  forth  his  wife  and  have  her  tell  his  friends 
how  good  she  was  going  to  be  in  the  future,  Comstock  presently 
went  to  the  room  in  which  he  had  left  her.  No  wife  was  there ! 
While  Comstock  had  been  talking  with  his  friends  and  receiving 


CA  TGHING  A  RUN  A  WA  Y  WIFE.  79 

their  congratulations,  his  wife  had  climbed  out  of  a  back  window 
and  was  off  again  with  her  young  lover. 

"  To  horse !  to  horse  !  "  was  then  the  cry,  and  soon  Comstock's 
friends  had  mounted  and  were  away.  Not  a  moment  was  to  be 
lost  if  the  fugitives  were  to  be  captured,  and  the  pursuit  began 
at  once,  Comstock  himself  was  not  idle.  He  went  forth  into 
the  town  and  offered  $100  reward  for  the  capture  and  return  of 
the  runaways,  He  also  went  to  a  livery-stable  and  hired  all 
the  teams  about  the  establishment,  sending  forth  upon,  the  search 
all  who  could  be  induced  to  go. 

Most  of  those  who  accepted  teams  went  off  pleasure-riding, 
and  would  not  have  disturbed  the  runaways  had  they  found 
them.  One  man  who  went  out  on  the  search,  however,  was  a 
California  miner  who  happened  to  be  in  Placerville  "dead 
broke."  He  wanted  the  reward,  and  when  he  started  out  he 
meant  business. 

The  next  day  this  man  walked  the  runaways  into  Placer- 
ville in  front  of  his  six-shooter.  Comstock  was  delighted,  and 
at  once  paid  the  man  the  $100  reward.  He  then  took  his  wife 
away  to  a  secure  place  in  the  upper  story  of  a  building,  and 
locked  her  up  in  a  room  in  order  to  have  another  talk  with  her. 

Meantime,  his  friends  had  charge  of  the  young  fellow  who 
was  making  a  business  of  stealing  Comstock's  wife.  They 
shut  him  up  in  a  room  at  the  hotel  where  they  were  stop- 
ping, and  placed  a  man  over  him  as  a  guard,  until  they 
could  consult  together  in  regard  to  what  was  to  be  his  fate — 
at  least  this  was  what  the  young  fellow  was  given  to  under- 
stand. 

Soon  after  dark  the  guard  told  the  young  man  that  it  had 
been  decided  to  take  him  out  and  hang  him.  The  guard  pre- 
tended to  regret  that  they  were  going  to  be  so  rough  with 
the  young  fellow  and  finally  told  him  that  if  he  could  manage 
to  escape  it  would  be  all  right.  "  Now,"  said  he,  "  I  am  going 
out  to  the  bar  to  take  a  drink  and  if  I  find  you  here  when  I 
come  back  it  will  be  your  own  fault." 

The  young  fellow  was  not  found  nor  was  he  ever  seen  in 
the  town  again. 

By  practicing  eternal  vigilance,  Comstock  managed  to  keep 
his  wife  that  winter,  but  in  the  spring,  when  the  snow  had 


80  WOMEN  AND  MISCHIEF. 

gone  off  and  the  little  wild-flowers  were  beginning  to  peep 
up  about  the  rocks  and  round  the  roots  of  the  tall  pines,  she 
watched  her  chance  and  ran  away  with  a  long-legged  minei 
who,  with  his  blankets  on  his  back,  came  strolling  that  way. 

Mrs.  Comstock  finally  ceased  to  roam;  she  came  to  anchor 
in  a  lager-beer  cellar  in  Sacramento. 

The  fate  of  Carter,  the  Mormon  who  sold  his  wife  to  Com- 
stock, was  tragic.  After  making  the  sale  he  mounted  the 
horse  he  had  received  in  part  payment  for  his  spouse,  and 
crossing  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains  by  way  of  Hope  Val- 
ley and  the  Big  Trees,  went  down  into  California.  There  he 
fell  in  with  an  emigrant  train  and  courted  and  married  a 
young  girl,  all  within  a  week.  The  next  spring  he  came  to 
Virginia  City  with  his  wife.  He  had  lived  there  but  a  short 
time  before  his  wife  learned  of  his  having  sold  a  recent  wife 
to  Comstock,  when  she  left  Carter's  bed  and  board  and  sued 
for  and  obtained  a  divorce.  She  then  married  a  Mr.  Winnie, 
of  Gold  Hill. 

At  that  time  it  was  the  fashion  to  take  up  mining  ground 
in  the  names  of  women.  Carter  had  caused  some  claims  to 
be  located  in  his  wife's  name,  and  after  she  was  divorced  from 
him  and  married  to  Winnie,  kept  running  to  see  her  about 
these  claims,  wishing  to  get  some  share  of  them  back.  The 
frequent  visits  of  Carter  were  not  relished  by  Winnie,  and  he 
and  Carter  had  several  wars  of  words.  At  length,  one  day 
when  Carter  came  and  was  bothering  Mrs.  Winnie  about 
the  mining  ground,  she  went  out  and  called  in  her  husband, 
who  was  at  work  near  at  hand.  As  Winnie  entered  the  house 
the  battle  was  opened  by  Carter  drawing  his  revolver  and 
shooting  three  fingers  off  Winnie's  left  hand.  Winnie  then 
turned  loose  with  his  six-shooter  and  killed  Carter  in  his 
tracks.  Some  time  after  this,  in  a  similar  argument  Winnie 
had  a  few  fingers — less  than  half  a  dozen — shot  off  his  right 
hand. 

Winnie  afterwards  went  to  Honey  Lake  Valley,  where  his 
wife  was  thrown  from  a  horse,  dragged  over  the  ground,  and 
killed. 

After  Comstock's  wife  ran  away  with  the  strolling  miner  he 
thought  best  to  let  her  continue  her  travels  unmolested.  He 


SEEKING  A  NEW  BONANZA.  81 

opened  a  store  at  Carson  City  with  the  money  received  for  his 
mining  interests  in  Virginia  City  and  also  had  a  branch-store 
at  Silver  City,  a  town  on  Gold  Canon,  about  three  miles 
below  Gold  Hill,  which  was  laid  out  in  the  summer  of  1859. 

He  soon  broke  up  in  the  mercantile  line,  losing  everything. 
He  trusted  everybody — all  went  to  his  stores  and  purchased 
goods  without  money  and  without  price,  and  at  last  his  old 
friends  the  Piute  Indians  came  in  and  carried  away  the  rem- 
nants. Comstock  made  them  all  happy,  male  and  female,  by 
passing  out  to  them  armfuls  of  red  blankets  and  calico  of 
brilliant  hues. 

His  stock  in  the  Carson  store  was  as  good  as  was  seen  in 
most  trading  establishments  of  the  kind  at  that  day,  but  his 
Silver  City  branch  never  amounted  to  much,  the  stock  con- 
sisting principally,  as  the  miners  said,  of  blue  cotton  overalls, 
pick-handles,  rusty  bacon,  "nigger"  shoes,  and  "dog-leg"  to- 
bacco. 

After  losing  all  of  his  property,  Comstock  left  Nevada  and 
went  to  Idaho  and  Montana,  through  which  countries  he 
wandered  and  prospected  for  some  years,  always  hoping  that 
some  day  he  should  come  upon  a  second  Comstock  lode.  He 
was  always  ready  to  join  every  expedition  that  was  fitted  out 
to  explore  new  regions,  as  the  "big  thing"  seemed  to  him  to 
be  ever  just  ahead. 

In  1870  he  joined  the  Big  Horn  expedition  in  Montana,  and 
this  was  his  last  undertaking.  When  near  Bozeman  City,  on 
September  27th,  1870,  he  committed  suicide  by  shooting 
himself  in  the  head  with  his  revolver.  The  Montana  papers 
said  it  was  supposed  that  he  committed  the  act  while  laboring 
under  temporary  aberration  of  mind,  and  this  was  doubtless 
the  case,  as  his  was  by  no  means  a  sound  or  well-balanced 
brain. 


CHAPTER  X. 

A  LETTER   FROM   COMSTOCK. 

THE  following  letter  from  H.  T.  P.  Comstock  was  originally 
published  in  the  St.  Louis  Republican,  some  years  ago, 
and  gives  a  good  idea  of  the  man  and  his  mental  condi- 
tion during  the  latter  years  of  his  life.  He  was  always  very 
eccentric,  and  even  during  the  time  he  was  in  Washoe,  in  the 
early  days,  was  considered  by  many  persons  to  be  "  a  little 
cracked  "  in  the  "  upper  story  " — was  a  man  flighty  in  his  imag- 
inings. The  first  part  of  the  letter,  with  the  date,  is  lacking  and 
was  no  doubt  left  off  as  being  merely  introductory  and  unimpor- 
tant, by  the  papers  which  republished  it  after  it  reached  the  Paci- 
fic Coast.  The  letter  was  written  from  Butte  City,  Montana, 
Some  of  Comstock's  statements  are  correct,  but  the  greater  part 
of  what  he  says  is  a  mere  jumble  and  shows  a  wavering  mind. 
His  letter  begins : 

"  These  men,  there  in  Washoe,  are  interested  in  misrepresenting  the  facts 
about  the  Comstock  lode  ;  they  fear  my  claims  to  the  water,  the  town  site  of 
Virginia  and  other  interests  they  have  swindled  me  out  of.  It  is  just  what 
they  are  afraid  of  exactly  ;  and  that's  what  everybody  in  Washoe  is  afraid  of» 
I  shall  yet  have  my  say,  I  am  writing  a  history  of  my  life  and  all  those 
fellows  had  better  stand  from  under.  Now  I  want  to  tell  the  whole  truth 
about  the  Comstock  lode  :  I'll  try  to  do  it  and  I  want  you  to  publish  it.  If 
you  are  gentlemen  you  will  do  it — it  is  nothing  more  than  right.  Here  it  is  : 

I,  Henry  Thomas  Paige  Comstock,  first  went  to  that  country— the  Washoe— 
from  Mexico,  in  1853  ;  roved  all  around  California,  and  went  back  to  Mexico 
that  year ;  went  back  then  to  Washoe,  in  the  spring  of  1854,  and  staid  there. 
My  home  was  in  Santa  Fe,  when  in  Mexico.  I,  old  Joe  Caldwell,  Elmore  & 
Co.,  partners  of  mine  for  twelve  years,  were  the  first  men  who  ever  worked  in 
that  section. 

Worked  there  in  1855 — 56  on  surface-diggings,  prospecting  all  the  while 
for  silver  ore.  The  Grosch  brothers  worked  at  what  is  now  known  as  Silver 

82 


"OLD  PANCAKE'S"  STORY.  83 

t 

City.  One  of  them,  Hosea,  stuck  a  pick  in  his  foot  and  died  in  my  cabin. 
The  other,  Allen,  died  near  Sugar-Loaf,  California.  This  was  three  years 
before  the  Comstock  lode  was  discovered. 

The  first  discovery  of  the  Comstock  lode  was  made  in  this  way :  In  the 
middle  of  January,  1859,  I  saw  some  queer-looking  stuff  in  a  gopher  hole  ;  I 
ran  my  hand  in  and  took  out  a  handful  of  dirt  and  saw  silver  and  gold  in  it. 
At  that  time,  big  John  Bishop  and  old  Virginia  were  with  me,  when  I  found 
it ;  they  were  sitting  upon  the  side  of  the  hill,  Gold  Hill,  a  couple  of  hundred 
yards  from  me.  I  took  up  five  claims.  A  couple  of  weeks  from  that  time, 
and  where  the  Ophir  is  now  located,  I  found  the  same  prospects,  and  told  the 
boys  at  Gold  Hill  I  was  going  to  work  as  good  a  mine  as  the  first  discovery  ; 
did  not  know  at  the  time  there  was  a  lead  of  that  description  there,  Riley 
and  McLaughlin  were  working  for  me  at  the  time  of  the  Ophir  discovery. 
I  caved  the  cut  in  and  went  after  my  party  to  take  up  the  lead  and  form  my 
company.  Manny  Penrod,  Peter  Riley,  Patrick  McLaughlin,  *  Kentuck,'  or 
Osborne,  and  myself  formed  a  company.  With  my  party  I  opened  the  lead, 
and  called  it  Comstock  lode  ;  that  is  the  way  they  came  by  their  interests  ;  I 
gave  it  to  them. 

We  started  to  rocking  with  my  water;  had  only  a  small  quantity  to  rock 
with.  We  made  from  five  to  ten  and  twelve  pounds  a  day,  and  the  dust  was 
from  $9  to  $12  an  ounce — went  that  at  Brewster's  bank,  Placerville,  Cali- 
fornia, where  I  did  my  business. 

I  continued  owning  the  claim,  locating  1,400  feet  out  for  myself,  for  the  use 
of  my  water  to  the  company.  I  also  located  the  Savage  claim  ;  showed  the 
ground  to  old  man  Savage.  1  located  the  Gould  &  Curry — went  into  the 
valley  and  got  old  Daddy  Curry  to  come  down,  and  put  him  in  possession  of  it. 

I  also  owned  tbe  Hale  &  Norcross,  and  kept  Norcross  for  a  year  to  work  in 
that  ground.  I  also  owned  the  principal  part  in  Gold  Hill  and  leased  it  out 
to  Walsh  and  Woodruff — leased  to  them  950  for  760 — don't  now  remember 
which.  Now  I  will  tell  you  how  I  sold  it ;  it  has  never  been  told  as  it  ought 
to  be  told  throughout  the  United  States  for  my  benefit,  and  it  shall  be. 

Sandy  Bowers,  I  gave  him  his  claim  of  20  feet  in  Gold  Hill.  Bill  Knight, 
I  gave  him  his  claim  ;  Joe  Plato,  I  gave  him  his.  Joe  is  dead  now,  and  his 
widow  is  awful  rich. 

I  was  working  this  claim,  the  Ophir,  and  taking  out  a  good  deal  of  ore ;  I 
did  not  know  what  the  ore  was  worth,  being  in  the  wilderness  then,  with  no 
road  to  get  out  or  into  from  California.  It  was  an  awful  wilderness  !  I  took 
several  tons  of  the  ore  and  transported  it  by  ox-teams,  to  best  advantage 
through  the  mountains  of  California,  and  Judge  Walsh  was  my  agent  and 
helped  me. 

Now  during  this  time  I  was  taking  out  large  gold  and  silver  specimens,  and 
took  one  specimen,  weighing  12  pounds,  and  boxed  it  up  and  ordered  it  sent 
to  Washington  City.  I  instructed  John  Musser,  a  lawyer  at  Washoe,  to  send 
it ;  I  don't  know  whether  it  ever  reached  there  or  not.  I  wanted  Congress 
to  see  it,  and  the  President,  for  it  was  the  first  gold  and  silver  ore  mixed  ever 
found  in  the  United  States. 


84:  ROUGHING  IT. 


I  went  on  working,  and  Judge  Walsh  and  Woodruff  were  there  for  two 
months,  trying  every  day  to  buy  me  out.  My  health  being  bad  I  sold  the  claim 
to  them  on  these  terms:  I  was  to  get  $10,000,  and  did  get  it  at  last;  and 
I  was  to  receive  one-eleventh  of  all  that  ever  came  out  of  the  claim  during  my 
natural  life,  and  at  my  death  was  to  will  it  to  whoever  I  pleased  ;  also,  to  re- 
ceive $100  per  month. 

That  was  the  contract ;  and  two  men,  Elder  Bennett  and  Manny  Penrod, 
witnessed  it ;  but  my  health  was  bad,  and  before  I  had  the  contract  of  sale 
recorded,  Woodruff  and  Walsh  sold  it  out,  Having  taken  no  lien  on  the 
property,  I  never  got  a  dollar,  from  that  day  to  this,  except  what  was  at  first 
received. 

I  am  a  regular  born  mountaineer,  and  did  not  know  the  intrigues  of  civilized 
rascality,  I  am  not  ashamed  to  acknowledge  that.  Well,  I  had  a  store  in 
Carson  City  and  was  lying  in  the  back  room  sick  and  helpless.  I  told  Ed. 
Belcher  to  take  all  my  papers,  and  the  contract  between  Judge  Walsh  and 
Woodruff  and  myself,  and  put  them  under  my  pillow.  I  could  speak,  but 
couldn't  help  myself  a  bit.  They  all  said  I  would  die,  and  said  :  '  Boys,  let's 
pitch  in  and  help  ourselves  ! '  And  they  did  pitch  in  ;  and  I  never  saw  the 
papers  afterwards.  And  the  Gold  Hill  I  leased  to  Walsh  and  Woodruff ;  and 
then  Frink  and  Kincaid  got  it,  and  I  never  got  anything  for  it ;  and  the  160 
acres  of  ground  on  which  Virginia  City  is  built  is  my  old  recorded  ranche. 
I  used  to  raise  all  my  potatoes  and  vegetables  on  it,  and  had  the  Indians  do 
the  work  for  me. 

Virginia  City  was  first  called  Silver  City.  I  named  it  at  the  time  I  gave  the 
Ophir  claim  its  name.  Old  Virginia  and  the  other  boys  got  on  a  drunk  one 
night  there,  and  Old  Virginia  fell  down  and  broke  his  bottle,  and  when  he 
got  up  he  said  he  baptized  that  ground  Virginia — hence  Virginia  City — and 
that  is  the  way  it  got  its  name.  At  that  time  there  were  a  few  tents,  a  few 
little  huts,  and  a  grog-shop  ;  that  was  all  there  was.  I  was  camped  under  % 
eedar-tree  at  that  time — I  and  my  party. 

I  am  now  living  at  Butte  City,  in  Montana  Territory.  The  quartz  in  Mon- 
tana is  very  rich  quartz,  and  the  Cable  claim  is  next  to  the  Comstock,  but 
gold  in  place  of  silver.  There  is  a  greater  variety  of  minerals  in  Montana 
than  in  any  country  I  have  ever  explored.  There  are  tin  mines  here.  I 
discovered  them  myself ;  and  there  are  alabaster  mines  here,  Silver,  vastly 
rich,  and  gold  very  rich.  The  Flint  Creek  mines — oh,  God  !  how  rich  ! 
This  is  bound  to  be  a  rich  country,  but  we  are  a  long  way  from  market  and 
have  to  go  slow. 

And  the  Butte  mines,  too,  they  are  vastly  rich,  but  very  much  mixed  with 
other  metals — that  is,  a  great  many  of  them — and  Highland  has  a  good  many 
rich  leads  now  open  and  opening. 

This  is  a  country  second  to  none  on  the  globe,  in  point  of  mineral  wealth 
and  in  the  precious  metals.  Now,  you  newspaper  men  have  got  me  in  your 
papers,  I  want  to  say  a  word  about  myself.  I  am  a  man  that  has  been 
through  the  wars.  I  was  in  the  Black  Hawk  war ;  was  with  Black  Hawk 
when  he  died.  I  was  in  the  Mexican  war,  and  all  through  in  the  patriot  war 


H.  T.  P.  COMSTOCK. 


THE  FATE  OF  "OLD   VIRGINIA:  87 

in  Canada  ;  had  three  brothers  in  it— I  was  the  youngest ;  they  are  all  dead 
now. 

I  am  the  son  of  old  Noah  Comstock,  living  in  Cleveland,  Ohio.  He  has 
been  largely  engaged  in  the  lumber  and  hotel  business  there.  I  have  been 
in  the  wilderness  since  a  child  ;  was  bound  to  the  American  Fur  Company ; 
my  boss  died  and  that's  the  way  I  got  with  old  Black  Hawk.  My  first  recol- 
lection was  packing  traps  ;  trapped  all  over  Canada,  Michigan,  and  Indiana  ; 
but  the  Rocky  Mountains  have  been  my  home  ;  I  have  been  a  guide  these 
years  and  years.  I  was  born  in  Canada,  and  am  now  near  fifty  years  of  age. 

HENRY  T.  P.  COMSTOCK. 

James  Fennimore,  better  known  as  James  Finney  and 
familiarly  called  "  Old  Virginia,"  by  all  the  old  settlers  of 
Washoe,  he  being  a  native  of  the  State  of  Virginia,  came  to 
the  mines  on  Gold  Canon,  in  1851.  He  came  from  the  Kern 
River  country,  California,  where  he  had  a  "  difficulty  "  with  a 
man,  and,  believing  he  had  killed  him,  took  a  little  walk  across 
the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains,  dropping  the  name  of  Fenni- 
more and  calling  himself  James  Finney. 

Although  fond  of  the  bottle,  Old  Virginia  was  by  no  means 
a  loafer.  He  had  his  sprees,  but  these  were  generally  followed 
by  seasons  of  great  activity. 

He  was  very  fond  of  hunting,  and  when  not  engaged  in 
mining  or  prospecting  he  was  ranging  the  mountains  and 
valleys  in  search  of  deer,  antelope,  and  mountain  sheep.  He 
was  interested  in  nearly  all  the  enterprises  of  the  early  John- 
town  and  Gold  Hill  mines  but  missed  being  in  the  Ophir  at 
the  time  of  the  discovery  of  silver,  having  sold  his  interest  in 
the  Six-mile  Canon  diggings  the  previous  season. 

He  was  killed  in  the  town  of  Dayton,  in  July,  1861,  by  being 
thrown  from  a  "bucking"  mustang  that  he  was  trying  to 
ride  while  a  good  deal  under  the  influence  of  liquor.  He 
was  pitched  head  first  upon  the  ground,  suffered  a  fracture  of 
the  skull,  and  died  in  a  few  hours.  At  the  time  of  his  death 
he  was  possessed  of  about  $3,000  in  coin  and  had  been  talk- 
ing of  returning  soon  to  his  native  State. 

I  one  day  met  a  Piute  Indian  in  Virginia  City  who  recol- 
lected both  Comstock  and  Old  Virginia  very  well.  Fifteen 
or  twenty  stalwart  Indians,  who  had  been  engaged  at  driving 
wood  and  timber  on  the  Carson  River,  had  visited  Virginia 
for  the  purpose  of  expending  their  earnings  in  the  purchase 


88  "OLE  COMSTOCK  DEAD." 

of  blankets  and  other  staples.  Among  the  number  was  an 
Indian  who  appeared  to  be  forty-five  or  fifty  years  of  age. 
Something  that  he  said  about  the  changed  appearance  of  the 
place  induced  me  to  ask  him  how  long  he  had  known  the 
town. 

"Well,"  said  he,  speaking  pretty  fair  English,  "long  time. 
When  me  first  come  here,  no  house  here;  all  sagebrush.  Me 
work  here  first  time  me  come  for  Old  Birginey  (Old  Virginia). 
Yes ;  me  work  for  Old  Birginey  down  in  Six-mile  Caiiyum." 

"At  mining?"   I  asked. 

"Yes;  minin/  Me  heap  pull  um  rocker.  Me  that  time 
know  Comstock — Ole  Comstock.  You  Sabe  him  ?  " 

"  Yes ; "  said  I,  "  have  seen  him.  He  is  dead  now.  Got 
broke,  up  in  Montana ;  bad  luck  all  the  time ;  got  crazy  and 
shot  himself  through  the  head  with  a  pistol. 

"  Hum  !  Ole  Comstock  dead,"  said  the  old  warrior  mus- 
ingly, "  dead  !  Well,  Ole  Comstock  owe  me  fifty-five  dollar. 
That  money  gone  now.  Well,  same  way  Ole  Birginey.  He 
owe  me  forty-five  dollar  when  he  die." 

"  How  did  he  die  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Well,  you  see  he  die  down  to  Dayton  long  time  ago.  Ole 
Birginey  he  all  time  drink  too  much  whisky.  One  day  he 
bully  drunk,  he  get  on  pony ;  pony  he  run,  he  buck  one  bully 
buck  and  Ole  Birginey  go  over  pony  head.  One  foot  stay  in 
stirrup  and  pony  drag  ole  man  on  ground  and  kill  him.  Me 
help  dig  one  grave,  bury  Ole  Birginey,  down  Dayton,  by 
Carson  River.  Well,  well,"  said  the  old  redskin,  reflectively, 
"  boss  kill  um  Ole  Birginey,  Comstock  he  kill  heself.  Com- 
stock owe  me  fifty-five  dollar;  Ole  Birginey  owe  me  forty- 
five  dollar !  Me  think,"  shaking  his  head,  "  maybe  both  time 
too  much  whisky!"  The  sage  old  Piute  was  mistaken  as 
regarded  Comstock ;  he  was  a  man  who  drank  but  little. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

OLD   VIRGINIA    AND   HIS   STORIES. 

OLD  VIRGINIA  used  to  tell  of  a  terrible  fight  that  took 
place  one  evening  in  Gold  Hill.  The  stakes,  he  said, 
were  two  short  bits  (twenty  cents).  The  fight  lasted  half 
an  hour  and  was  most  stubbornly  contested  on  both  sides.  The 
contest  was,  as  he  would  here  explain,  between  his  appetite 
and  his  "drinketite."  He  held  stakes,  and  fora  good  while 
was  unable  to  decide  which  had  won.  At  last,  however, 
drinketite  got  his  opponent  down  and  kept  him  down  so  long 
that  he  decided  in  his  favor,  and  all  three  struck  out  for  the 
nearest  saloon — appetite  grumbling  at  him  all  the  way  about 
his  decision. 

As  has  been  already  mentioned,  Old  Virginia  was  a  great 
hunter.  When  not  engaged  in  mining  or  prospecting,  he  was 
off  in  the  hills  with  his  gun  ;  most  generally  alone  wandering 
and  philosophizing  through  the  wilderness  as  he  viewed  the 
stupendous  works  of  nature.  He  used  to  tell  a  story  of  a 
feast  he  once  had  in  the  desert  regions  of  the  Humboldt, 
which  was  quite  amusing.  It  ran  as  follows: 
OLD  VIRGINIA'S  FISHER  STORY. 

"In  '53,  six  or  eight  of  us  were  out  on  a  huntin*  trip  and 
camped  on  the  Humboldt  River,  down  to'ards  the  sink  of  the 
same. 

"  We'd  been  havin'  miserable  luck.  Couldn't  strike  any 
game  and  had  'bout  devoured  what  grub  we'd  carried  out 
with  us  when  we  left  Johntown.  This  being  the  case,  we 
nat'rally  had  to  keep  stirrin'  about  to  try  to  skeer  up  some- 
thin'  that  would  do  to  eat.  So,  one  afternoon,  when  the  pot 
was  'bout  empty,  all  hands  struck  out  to  try  for  something  in 
the  way  of  game;  some  goin*  one  way  and  some  another. 

89 


90  PROSPECTING  FOR  A  DINNER. 

"  Old  Captain  Crooks  and  one  or  two  more,  went  off  down 
the  river,  while  the  rest  of  our  fellers  struck  back  from  the 
stream  and  kind  o'  promiscuously  diversified  themselves  out 
across  the  sand-hills  and  sage-brush  flats  in  search  of  sage-hen 
and  rabbits;  you  see  we  couldn't  expect  to  find  big  game  in 
that  section — deer,  and  antelope,  and  them  sort  of  fellers. 

"I  finally  went  off  up  the  river  alone.  I  jogged  along  up 
the  stream,  'bout  half  a  mile,  and  then  laid  down  in  a  big 
bunch  of  weedy-lookin'  bushes.  As  I  was  reposiri'  thar  in  the 
silence,  gazin'  up  at  the  deep  blue  sky,  I  fell  to  ruminatin'  on 
the  unsartainty  of  all  things  here  below — on  what  is  above, 
and  why  we  are  here. 

"I  had  jist  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  man  can  no  more 
help  bein'  born  than  a  blade  of  grass  can  stay  in  the  ground 
when  spring  comes;  and,  as  the  blade  of  grass  can't  help 
fadin*  and  dyin'  when  winter  comes  on,  so  man  goes  out  of 
the  world  with  about  as  little  say  in  the  matter  as  when  he 
comes  into  it. 

"All  of  this  I  was  a-thinkin*  about  as  I  lay  thar  lookin'  up' 
at  the  sky,  half-way  noticin'  a  solitary  raven  as  was  a  sailin 
about  high  above.  I'd  fixed  it  up  that  thar  was  a  great  head 
mind  up  in  them  blue  heavens  somewhar,  as  was  a-seein'  to 
all  matters  for  me  and  the  grass,  and  that  things  was  liable  to 
work  jist  about  as  that  mind  willed,  whether  me  and  the  grass 
made  a  fuss  about  it  or  not,  when  all  at  once  I  heerd  a  small 
racket,  near  me  in  some  dry  grass. 

"Erectin'  myself  cautiously,  and  peepin'  over  the  top  of  my 
clump  of  bushes,  I  seed  a  all-fired  big  skunk,  rootin'  under 
the  dry,  matted  grass  near  the  brink  of  the  river.  He  war 
lookin'  after  mice,  worms,  bugs,  grass-nuts,  and  sich  like 
provender. 

"  I  brought  my  gun  to  my  shoulder  and  knocked  the  unsus- 
pectin'  critter  over  so  dead  that  he  never  kicked.  He  was  jist 
as  good  game  as  I  wanted — I  wouldn't  have  traded  him  for 
any  number  of  blue-meated  rabbits. 

uBein'  shot  in  jist  the  right  spot,  thar  wasn't  a  particle  of 
smell  about  him.  You  see  I'd  knocked  over  many  sich  fellers 
back  in  Ole  Virginney  and  knowed  percisely  whar  to  hold  on 
him  to  do  the  work.  Many's  the  fine  fat  one  I'd  cooked  and 
devoured !  But  it's  not  every  place  whar  they'll  eat  skunk — 
it's  a  thing  that  runs  in  streaks  and  through  sartain  settle- 
ments, as  you  may  say. 

"  This  was  a  prime  feller !  I  think  I  never,  in  all  my 
experience,  killed  a  finer  or  fatter  one.  I  shouldered  my 
game  and  trudged  back  to  the  camp,  which  I  found  vacant. 
None  of  the  boys  had  yet  returned. 

I  sat  down  and  skinned  my  skunk,  then  tuck  and  hid  the 


A  SKUNK  STOR  Y.  93 


skin  in  some  low  bushes,  a  few  rods  from  camp,  in  order  that 
none  of  the  fellows  might  know  the  exact  natur  of  the  game 
I'd  brought  in. 

"  If  they  knowed  it  war  a  skunk,  not  one  of  'em  would  eat  a 
bite  of  it — some  people's  so  prejudiced,  you  know  'bout  outside 
appearances  and  the  little  nat'ral  peculiarities  of  birds  and  beast. 

"'Well,  to'ards  night,  Captain  Crook's  and  all  the  fellers  got 
into  camp,  and  not  one  of  them  had  killed  a  thing.  They  soon 
spied  the  fine  plump  animal  I  had  hangin'  up  on  a  stake,  near 
camp,  and  wanted  to  know  what  for  critter  it  war.  I  told  'em  I 
didn't  know  for  sartin — the  blame  thing  ruther  headed  my  time, 
and  I  war  convarsant  with  most  of  the  four-footed  quadrupeds 
perambulatin'  the  present  hemisphere ;  yet  I  reckon  the  thing 
might  do  to  eat  on  a  pinch. 

"  All  hands  now  wanted  to  see  the  skin.  I  pretended  to  look 
for  it,  then  told  'em  I'd  seed  the  dogs  a  worryin'  with  somethin* 
a  bit  ago'  and  ruther  guessed  they'd  drug  the  skin  into  the  river. 

11  Captain  Crooks  seemed  to  be  took  with  a  idea.  Says  he : 
'Was  it  a  kinder  brownish-black  lookin'  thing,  with  a  kinder 
middlin'-like  bushy  tail  ?  ' 

" '  What  would  it  be  apt  to  be  if  it  was  that  way  ? '  says  I. 

«"  A  fisher,'  says  he. 

' '  Is  a  fisher  good  to  eat  ?  '  says  I. 

"'Yes,  fisher's  bully  eatin,'  says  he. 
'  That's  the  way  its  tail  looked,'  says  I 

" '  How  about  the  color  ?  '  says  he. 

"  '  Air  fishers  as  good  as  rabbit  ?  '  says  I. 

"'Much  bulleyer!  '  says  he. 

"'Then,'  says  I,  'you've  guessed  the  color.' 

"  The  old  Captain  then  turned  to  the  boys  and  said  he  knowed 
it  was  a  fisher  the  moment  he  sot  eyes  on  it,  and  he  hadn't  seen 
one  for  goin'  on  eleven  year,  now. 

"  Then  he  went  to  braggin'  so  much  about  what  good  eatin' 
fisher  was,  that  the  boys  all  got  awful  anxious  to  be  tryin*  some 
of  the  critter. 

"  But  the  Captain  said  fisher  warn 't  good  till  it  had  first  been 
well  parboiled ;  that  we  must  put  him  in  the  camp-kettle  and 
bile  him  that  night,  then  stew  him  down  in  a  pan  for  breakfast. 

"  When  we  went  to  bed.  we  left  the  fisher  gently  simmerin'  over 
the  fire,  and  by  mornin'  he  was  not  only  biled,  but  too  much  so 
— was  biled  to  rags. 

"The  Captain  looked  alitle  puzzled  at  this  phernominon,  but 
the  boys  said  it  was  all  the  better. 

"We  fried  as  much  of  the  animal  as  we  could  stack  into  two 
pans  and  had  a  reg'lar  feast  of  fisher ;  as  the  fellers  all  believed 
the  thing  to  be. 


94:  O'RILEY'S  MISTAKE. 

"  Old  Captain  Crooks  was  delighted.  He  had  his  plate  filled 
about  five  times,  and  told  the  boys,  as  all  were  squatted  in  a 
circle  round  about  on  the  ground,  how  he  used  to  have  big  times 
up  in  Wisconsin  a  catchin'  and  a  cookin'  of  fishers. 

"  I'd  finished  my  breakfast  and  started  to  go  and  ketch  up  my 
horse,  when  I  came  to  the  skunk  skin,  layin-  in  the  bushes  whar 
I'd  hid  it  away.  An  idea  popped  into  my  head.  I  looked  at 
the  great  black-and-white,  woolly  hide,  then  at  the  ole  Captain, 
who,  with  his  knife  and  fork  balanced  acrost  his  fingers,  was  showin' 
the  boys  how  to  set  a  trap  for  a  fisher.  He  still  had  in  his  lap 
'bout  half  a  plate  of  greasy,  steamin'  fisher  stew,  and  the  fellers 
was  all  still  a  shovelin'  in  fisher,  watchin,'  between  mouthfuls, 
the  trap  the  Captain  was  fixen  up  for  'em. 

"  *  I'll  do  it ! '  says  I,  to  myself.  Pickin'  up  the  skin  by  'bout 
six  of  the  long  white  hairs  in  the  end  of  the  tail,  I  marched  up 
to  where  all  war  squatted. 

"'Hyar,  fellers,'  says  I,  'blame  me  if  hyar  ain't  that  dam 
fisher  skin  now !  " 

"  Gentlemen,  if  I  war  to  talk  from  now  till  next  week  I  could'nt 
do  full  justice  to  what  follered  !  Old  Captain  Crooks  was  just 
raisin'  a  forkful  of  stew  to  his  mouth,  when  he  ketched  sight  of 
that  air  skin.  The  fork  dropped  from  his  hand;  his  eyes 
bugged  out  like  the  horns  of  a  snail,  and  a  sort  of  convulsive 
shudder  shook  his  whole  animal  system  as  he  yelled  :  '  Skunk, 
by  all  that's  stinkin'  and  nasty  !  " 

" '  Skunk,  by  thunder ! '  howled  all  the  rest  in  chorus. 

"  Sick !  well,  I  need'nt  mention  what  follered.  But,  fellers, 
that  like  ter  cost  me  my  life — that  trick  did.  When  them  boys 
finally  got  convalescent  and  riz  up  and  come  for  me,  it  was 
close  papers  for  a  time. 

"  Ole  Captain  Crooks  picked  one  lock  o'  hair  out  o*  my  head 
before  I  had  time  to  make  the  least  explanation,  It  tuck  awful 
hard  swearin'  to  make  them  fellers  believe  I  had'nt  never  seed  a 
skunk  afore." 

"  Peter  O'Riley,  in  the  early  days,  when  mining  on  Gold 
Canon  and  along  Six-mile  Canon,  was  an  honest,  hard-work- 
ing, good-natured,  harmless  kind  of  man,  yet  when  aroused 
displayed  a  most  fierce  and  ungovernable  temper.  When  he 
flew  into  a  passion  he  was  ready  to  do  anything  or  use  any 
kind  of  weapon  that  first  came  to  hand.  Even  then,  he 
showed,  in  this,  signs  of  that  insanity  in  which  he  ended  his 
days.  Many  instances  of  his  exhibitions  of  blind  and  furious 
rage  are  related  by  the  early  miners. 

During  these  early  days  a  sham  duel  was  got  up  at  John- 
town  between  O'Riley  and  a  young  man  named  Smith,  a 


A  DUEL. 


miner  working  in  Gold  Canon.  As  in  most  real  duels,  there 
was  a  woman  in  the  case,  a  girl  living  up  in  Carson  Valley. 
Both  O'Riley  and  Smith  found  pleasure  in  the  smile  of  the 
young  girl  in  question,  and  the  light  of  her  eyes  was  as  sun- 
shine to  their  hearts.  O'Riley  was  so  much  smitten  that  he 
would  sometimes  go  and  work  all  day  on  the  farm  of  the 
father  without  money  and  without  reward  of  any  kind,  other 
than  the  pleasure  of  being  near  the  daughter  during  the  time 
he  was  taking  his  meals.  Such  hard-working  love  as  this 
must  have  been  strong  and  honest.  /As  O'Riley  could  neither 
read  nor  write  the  "boys"  fixed  up  letters  purporting  to  come 
from  the  girl,  in  which  she  expressed  uubounded  love  for 
both  men,  but  the  trouble  was  that  for  the  life  of  her  she  could 
not  say  which  she  most  loved.  At  last  there  came  a  letter  in 
which  she  said  she  had  thought  of  a  way  of  deciding  the 
matter.  O'Riley  and  Smith  were  to  fight  a  duel,  and  her 
hand  was  to  be  the  prize  of  the  victor. 

O'Riley  was  ready  for  this  at  once,  for,  as  I  have  said,  he 
was  a  man  who  was  quite  desperate  when  the  deeper  feelings 
of  his  nature  were  aroused,  and  Smith,  though  he  pretended 
to  dislike  the  proposition,  finally  agreed  to  stand  up  to  the 
rack ;  there  appearing  to  be  no  other  way  in  which  the  diffi- 
culty could  be  settled. 

It  was  left  to  the  friends  of  the  principals  to  make  the 
necessary  arrangements.  These  decided  that  as  but  one  of 
the  men  could  have  the  girl,  the  duel  should  be  to  the  death. 
They  therefore  announced  that  the  fight  must  be  with  double- 
barrelled  shotguns,  at  twenty  paces. 

The  appointed  time  arrived,  and  the  rival  lovers  were  placed 
in  position,  each  armed  with  a  shotgun.  The  guns  were 
heavily  charged  with  powder  and  paper- wads,  but  O'Riley, 
who  was  in  downright  earnest  and  thirsted  for  blood,  sup- 
posed that  all  was  on  the  square  and  that  each  barrel  of  both 
guns  contained  not  less  than  nine  revolver-balls. 

At  the  word,  both  men  fired;  but  O'Riley,  who  was  deter- 
mined to  put  his  rival  out  of  the  way,  turned  loose  with  both 
barrels  of  his  gun,  firing  his  second  barrel  almost  before  the 
smoke  had  drifted  away  from  the  muzzle  of  the  first. 

Young  Smith  fell  groaning  to  the  ground,  where  his  brother 


FLIGHT  OF  THE   VICTOR. 


who  was  standing  near  with  his  left  hand  filled  with  the  blood 
of  a  chicken,  ran  to  him,  crying :  "  Oh  !  my  poor  brother,  my 
poor  brother!  "  at  the  same  time  smearing  his  brother's  breast 
with  the  blood  he  held  in  his  hand. 

O'Riley  was  brought  to  the  spot  by  his  seconds,  and  while 
they  were  asking  the  seconds  of  the  opposite  side  if  their  man 
had  received  satisfaction,  the  brother  of  the  man  lying  on  the 
ground  suddenly  drew  his  six-shooter,  and  shouting :  "  You 
have  killed  my  brother,  now  I'll  have  your  life !  "  made  at 
O'Riley,  who  ran  like  a  deer  for  the  house  of  a  neighbor, 
where  he  knew  a  loaded  shotgun  was  kept. 

As  he  ran,  the  brother  of  the  man  supposed  to  be  killed, 
occasionally  fired  his  pistol,  causing  O'Riley  to  do  some  lively 
zigzaging,  after  the  manner  practiced  by  the  Piute  Indians 
under  similar  circumstances. 

The  farce  of  the  duel  having  been  carefnlly  studied  in  all 
of  its  details,  long  before  going  upon  the  ground,  and  know- 
ing that  at  this  stage  of  its  progress  O'Riley  would  go  for 
this  shotgun,  the  boys  had  rammed  tremendous  charges  into 
both  barrels  of  the  ponderous  old  family  weapon,  putting  a 
number  of  paper  wads  down  upon  the  powder. 

Leaping  into  the  house  and  getting  possession  of  the  gun, 
O'Riley  rushed  out  and  was  about  to  make  his  way  across 
Gold  Canon,  when  his  pursuer,  now  dangerously  near,  blazed 
^way  at  him  again  with  his  revolver. 

O'Riley,  standing  on  the  brink  of  the  canon,  wheeled  about 
and  let  drive  at  his  relentless  pursuer.  He  had  cocked  both 
barrels  of  the  gun  and  both  went  off  together,  the  breech 
striking  him  full  on  the  nose  and  mouth,  sending  him  rolling 
fifteen  or  twenty  feet  to  the  bottom  of  the  canon.  He  landed 
in  active  retreat,  however,  and  went  up  through  the  canon 
like  an  antelope." 

O'Riley  made  directly  for  the  village  of  Franktown,  distant 
twelve  miles,  over  the  mountain,  and  remained  there  some 
two  weeks,  though  the  Johntowners  several  times  sent  word 
to  him  to  come  back  and  work  his  claim — that  he  had  not 
killed  Smith,  that  all  was  right  and  the  duel  was  only  a 
sham  affair. 

But  not  a  word  of  all  this  would  O'Riley  believe.    He  had 


O'RILEY  AND  HIS  GUN. 


97 


seen  his  rival  stretched  upon  the  ground  in  his  gore,  had 
heard  his  dying  groans,  and  was  not  to  be  fooled  back  to 
Johntown  to  be  shot  by  the  incensed  Smiths  or  hanged  by  the 
miners  of  the  camp. 

Taking  with  them  young  Smith,  the  man  supposed  to  have 


been  killed  in  the  duel,  a  party 
of  Johntowners  went  over  to 
Franktown  to  see  O'Riley.  No 
sooner  did  the  latter  see  that 
Smith  was  really  alive  than  he 
flew  into  a  terrible  rage  and  it 
was  all  that  the  friends  on  both  sides  could  do  to  prevent 
shooting  that  was  not  sham  and  bloodshed  in  earnest.  Peace 
was  finally  made  by  young  Smith  agreeing  to  renounce  all 
pretensions  to  the  hand  of  the  young  lady. 

Peter  O'Riley,  one  of  the  discoverers  of  the  Comstock  lode, 
as  has  been  stated,  held  his  interest  in  the  Ophir  mine,  longer 
than  any  of  the  original  locators,  and  realized  nearly  $50,000. 
He  seemed  to  be  "  fixed  "  for  the  remainder  of  his  days.  Being 
a  man  used  to  roughing  it  all  the  days  of  his  life,  his  wants,  both 
real  and  imaginary,  were  few.  Had  he  placed  his  money  at 
interest  he  could  have  taken  his  ease  all  the  rest  of  his  days. 
But  he  built  a  big  stone  hotel  in  Virginia  City,  and  then  allowed 
persons  to  persuade  him  that  he  was  a  great  man,  a  man  of 
financial  genius,  who  should  make  himself  felt  in  the  stock-mar- 
ket. As  he  could  neither  read  nor  write,  he  was  obliged  to  find 
persons  to  do  that  part  of  the  business  for  him.  He  and  his 
assistants  then  speculated — speculated  until  one  day  "poor 
old  Pete  "  found  himself  with  pick,  shovel,  and  pan,  on  his 
6 


98  WHA  T  THE  SPIRITS  SAID. 

back,  again  going  forth  to  prospect ;  as  we  have  seen  Comstock 
wandering  in  unrest  through  the  wilds  of  Montana. 

Being  a  spiritualist  and  having  always  the  latest  advices  from 
the  ghosts  of  the  departed,  in  regard  to  mines  and  all  else  worth 
knowing  about,  O'Riley  did  not  find  it  necessary  to  wander  as 
far  as  to  Montana.  The  spirits  pointed  out  a  place  in  the  foot- 
hills of  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains,  where  they  said  was 
stored  up  far  more  gold  and  silver  than  in  the  whole  Comstock 
lode. 

The  place  shown  O'Riley  by  the  spirits  was  nothing  more 
than  a  bed  of  rotten  granite.  Here  he  toiled  alone  at  running 
a  tunnel — worked  for  two  or  three  years — under  all  manner  of 
difficulties. 

The  ground  in  which  he  was  at  work  was  full  of  water,  and 
caves  frequently  occurred  in  his  tunnel.  The  work  of  many 
weeks  was  often  lost  in  a  moment  by  a  cave,  which  crushed  in 
his  timbers  and  drove  him  back  almost  to  where  he  first  began; 
but  the  spirits  said  there  was  a  whole  mountain  of  silver  and 
gold  ahead,  and  he  believed  them  and  persevered. 

He  was  without  money  but  not  without  friends.     One  and 


GUIDED   BY   SPIRITS. 

another  of  his  friends  among  the  old  settlers,  purchased  for  him 
what  he  required  in  the  way  of  provisions  and  tools.  As  he 
worked  alone  in  his  dark  tunnel,  month  after  month,  far 
under  the  mountain,  the  spirits  began  to  grow  more  and  more 
familiar.  They  swarmed  about  him,  advising  him  and  directing 


ALAS!  POOR  DUPE.  99 


the  work.  As  he  wielded  pick  and  sledge,  their  voices  came  to 
him  out  of  the  darkness  which  walled  m  the  light  of  his  solitary 
candle,  cheering  him  on ;  voices  from  the  chinks  in  the  rocks 
whispered  to  him  stories  of  great  masses  of  native  silver  at  no 
great  distance  ahead,  of  caverns  floored  with  silver  and  roofed 
with  great  arches  hung  with  stalactites  of  pure  silver  and 
glittering,  native  gold. 

The  spirits  talked  so  much  with  him  in  his  tunnel  under  the 
mountain,  and  had  made  themselves  so  familiar  then,  that  at  last 
they  boldly  conversed  with  him  under  the  broad  light  of  day,  and 
in  the  city  as  well  as  in  the  solitude  of  the  mountains.  He  was 
heard  muttering  to  them  as  he  walked  the  streets,  and  a  wild 
and  joyous  light  gleamed  in  his  eyes  as  he  listened  to  their 
promises  of  mountains  of  gold  and  caves  of  silver. 

News  at  length  came  that  O'Riley  had  been  caved  on  and 
badly  hurt;  then  that  the  physicians  had  pronounced  him 
insane. 

When  he  recovered  from  his  Hurt,  he  was  anxious  to  return 
to  his  tunnel — the  spirits  under  the  mountain  were  calling 
to  him — but  he  was  sent  to  a  private  asylum  for  the  insane, 
at  Woodbridge,  California,  and  in  a  year  or  two  died  there ; 
the  spirits  to  the  last  lingering  about  him  and  heaping  on  him 
reproaches  for  having  left  the  golden  mountains  and  silver 
caverns  they  had  pointed  out  to  him. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

MISLED   BY    THE    "SPIRITS." 

COMSTOCK  was  a  believer  in  spirits.  Mrs  L.  S.  Bowers- 
one  of  the  early  settlers  at  Johntown  and  at  Gold  Hill,  and 
now  known  as  the  "Washoe  Seeress,"  on  account  of  her 
many  predictions  about  fires  in  the  mines  and  rich  bodies  of  ore 
— is  a  Spiritualist,  and  very  many  of  the  early  settlers  and  those 
who  were  one  way  and  another  connected  with  the  discovery  of 
silver  in  Nevada,  were  Spiritualists.  Old  Virginia  was  also  a 
believer  in  "  spirits."  O'Riley  was  not  the  only  person  who  did 
mining  in  Nevada  under  the  direction  of  the  spirits.  Much 
money  has  been  lost  in  that  country  with  spirit  superintendents 
in  charge  of  the  work. 

The  most  ridiculous  work  of  the  kind  ever  done  there  however, 
under  the  direction  of  spirits  was  that  by  some  parties  who  were 
led  to  believe  that  Mount  Davidson — the  mountain  on  the  side 
of  which  Virginia  stands  and  which  towers  nearly  2000  feet  above 
the  city — was  an  immense  tank  of  oil. 

This  was  about  the  time  of  the  excitement  in  regard  to  the  oil 
wells  of  Pennsylvania;  while  "Coal-oil  Tommy  "  was  "  swinging 
round  the  circle." 

The  great  coal  oil  revelation  was  made  through  an  old  lady  of 
Virginia  City  who  was  a  great  medium,  and  the  great  oil  deposit, 
according  to  this  old  lady  and  her  spirits,  was  near  the  summit 
of  Mount  Davidson. 

To  Joe  Grigg,  an  engineer  at  the  old  Savage  mining-works, 
the  medium  made  known  the  spot  where  the  great  subterranean 
lake  of  oil  was  to  be  found.  Joe  got  some  tools  and  began  a 
tunnel  in  the  flinty  granite,  or  rather  gneiss,  which  was  stratified 
and  stood  as  would  the  shingles  on  a  house  if  turned  upside 

100 


THE  GREA  T  OIL   TANK, 


101 


down.  For  a  long  ^ime  Joe 
dug  away  in  his  tunnel,  en- 
couraged by  new  revelations 
almost  daily. 

The  medium  could  see  the 
oil  and  was  carefully  observ- 
ing the  progress  of  the  tunnel. 
Joe  was  getting  closer  and 
closer  to  the  vast  reservoir 
every  day.  At  last  it  seemed 
to  Joe  that  he  must  be  al- 
most on  the  point  of  breaking 
through  into  it.  Just  ahead 
of  him  the  medium  could  see 
the  great  lake  of  oil — an  ole- 
aginous ocean.  Joe,  at  work 
away  up  there  all  alone  on 
the  steep  slope  of  the  moun- 
tain began  cogitating  on  the 
situation  and  became  fright- 
ened. It  seemed  altogether 
too  big  a  thing — too  great  an 
abundance  of  oil.  Then,  too, 
he  began  to  think  of  the 
consequences  to  the  town, 
and  the  innocent  and  unsus- 
pecting inhabitants  thereof. 
There  he  was,  blasting  and 
banging  away  on  the  mount- 
ain-side, with  a  mere  shell 
of  granite — perhaps  not  ten 
inches  thick — between  him- 
self and  the  great  lake.  He 
pondered  upon  the  matter 
until  at  last  he  became  afraid 
to  continue,  and  decided  the 
blast  he  was  then  putting  in, 
should  be  his  last.  He  feared 
even  that  might  break  through  THE  LAST  BLAST. 

the  shell  of  rock  and  set   on   fire   the  great  lake  of  oil.     In 


102  AN  UNTAPPED  RESERVOIR. 

imagination  he  already  saw  this  vast  tanl;  of  oil  pouring  down 
the  side  of  the  mountain,  overwhelming  and  destroying  the  city. 

In  this  emergency  the  spirits  were  again  consulted.  They 
declared  that  a  large  iron  pipe  must  be  procured  and  laid  from 
the  tunnel  down  into  the  town,  when  the  oil  might  be  tapped  and 
its  flow  controlled.  The  spirits  also  asserted  that  the  time  for 
forming  a  company  had  now  arrived  and  advised  that  certain 
persons  be  let  into  the  secret.  Joe  having  hitherto  been  "going 
it  alone." 

The  persons  to  whom  the  secret  of  the  existence  of  the  great 
subterranean  reservoir  of  oil  was  made  known  were  nearly  all 
spiritualists.  The  "  Mount  Davidson  Oil  Company  "  was  formed, 
and  all  concerned  kept  very  quiet  about  the  matter  in  hand. 

All  was  now  in  readiness  for  tapping  the  oil  so  soon  as  the 
pipe  could  be  procured  and  laid.  In  order  that  they  might  not 
lack  the  pipe,  the  medium — who  was  at  the  head  of  the  com- 
pany and  was  managing  the  whole  business — proceeded  to  levy 
an  assessment  of  $5  per  share  on  the  capital  stock.  That 
assessment  exploded  the  whole  arrangement.  Every  shareholder 
turned  tail  and  "got  out  of  the  wilderness."  To  this  day  that 
lake  of  oil  remains  untapped,  and — as  it  is  not  likely  that  the 
spirits  would  lie  about  the  small  matter  of  a  few  million  hogs- 
head of  coal-oil — Mount  Davidson  stands  to-day  the  greatest 
natural  reservoir  of  oil  in  the  known  world. 

Patrick  McLaughlin,  who,  with  Peter  O'Riley,  made  the  dis- 
covery of  silver  in  the  Ophir  mine,  was  alive  at  last  accounts 
(in  1875)  and  was  at  work  at  the  Green  mine,  San  Bernardino 
county,  California.  He  was  doing  the  cooking  for  some  half- 
dozen  men,  employed  at  the  mine  named.  He  sold  his  interest 
in  the  Ophir  mine  for  $3,500  and  probably  received  considerable 
sums  for  shares  owned  by  him  in  other  mines  on  the  Comstock 
range,  all  of  which  he  doubtless  lost  in  speculations  of  various 
kinds — speculations  undertaken  with  a  view  to  securing  millions. 
Few  of  those  who  were  original  locators  anywhere  along  the 
Comstock  lode  received  large  prices  for  their  claims,  and  in  a 
few  years  all  were  again  as  poor  as  before  the  silver  was  found. 
Those  who  bought  and  continued  to  buy  at  what  seemed  like 
enormous  figures  were  they  who  have  made  the  most  money  out 
of  the  mines. 


GOING  IN  AND  COMING  OUT. 


103 


The  first  winter  after 
the  discovery  of  silver: 
1859 — 60,  was  one  of  the 
severest  the  country  has 
known.  As  I  have  al- 
ready stated,  there  were 
very  few  buildings  in  Vir- 
ginia City  that  were  wor- 
thy of  the  name.  The 
majority  of  the  inhabi- 
tants lived  in  mere  shan- 
ties and  in  underground 
caves  and  dens — -a  tribe 
of  troglodytes.  , 

Many  men  who  were  in 
the  country  during  the 
summer  and  fall,  left  for 
California  before  winter 
set  in,  some  with  the  in- 
tention of  returning  and 
others  cursing  the  coun- 
try. These  last  were  men 
who  had  for  years  been 
working  in  the  placer- 
mines  of  California  and 
who  had  rushed  over  the 
mountains  to  Washoe  as 
soon  as  news  reached 
them  of  the  great  wages 
being  taken  out  with 
rockers.  They  supposed 
there  were  extensive  pla- 
cer-mines in  the  new 
region.  When  they  found 
none  but  such  as  had 
already  been  gutted  by 
the  Johntowners  and  the 
Chinese  who  had  worked 
about  the  mouth  of  Gold 
Canon,  they  wanted  nothing  more  to  do  with  the  country.  They 


N   WASHOE. 


104:  EXPERIENCES  OF  THOSE   WHO  STA 


had  no  taste  for  working  quartz  veins  or  for  deep  mining  of 
any  kind.  They  lingered  in  the  country  till  toward  fall,  hunting 
for  rich  pockets  in  veins  of  quartz  that  appeared  to  be  gold-bear- 
ing, then  rose  up  and  in  a  flock  crossed  the  Sierras  to  the  more 
congenial  hills  flats,  and  gulches  of  the  "Golden  State." 

Many  persons,  however,  remained  at  Virginia  City,  Gold 
Hill,  Silver  City,  and  Dayton,  and  a  rough  time  they  all  had 
of  it  before  spring.  The  first  snow  fell  on  the  22nd  of  Novem- 
ber ;  it  snowed  all  day,  and  four  days  later  again  set  in,  when 
snow  fell  to  the  depth  of  five  or  six  feet,  cutting  off  all  com- 
munication between  Gold  Hill  and  Virginia,  though  the  two 
towns  were  but  a  mile  apart.  The  worst  of  the  winter  was 
between  this  time  and  the  ist  of  February.  In  December 
many  cattle  were  dying  of  cold  and  hunger  about  Chinatown 
(Dayton),  where  they  had  been  sent  to  find  a  living  in  the 
valley  along  the  Carson  River.  Not  only  cattle,  but  also 
horses,  donkeys,  and  animals  of  all  kinds  died  of  cold  and 
hunger.  Most  of  them  starved  to  death.  It  was  impossible 
to  procure  foqd  for  them. 

In  March,  1860,  hay  was  selling  at  50  cents  per  pound  and 
barley  at  40  cents.  Men  could  not  afford  to  keep  horses,  and 
therefore  shot  them  or  let  them  wander  away  into  the  valleys 
and  flats  and  take  their  own  time  about  dying.  Food  for 
man  was  about  as  dear  as  that  for  beast.  Flour  sold  for  $75 
per  100  pounds  in  Virginia  City;  coffee  at  50  cents  per 
pound,  and  bacon  at  40  cents.  Lumber  was  worth  $150  per 
thousand  feet,  and  all  else  in  proportion.  None  of  the  settlers 
starved,  but  the  stomachs  of  many  of  them  had  frequent  holi- 
days. Fuel  was  scarce,  it  being  necessary  to  pack  it  through 
the  deep  snow  from  the  surrounding  hills,  where,  at  that  time, 
was  to  be  found  a  sparse  growth  of  stunted  pines  and  cedars. 
The  stoves  of  the  saloons  and  lodging-houses  were  well 
patronized.  Bean-poker  and  old  sledge  were  the  principal 
amusements,  aside  from  talking  over  the  great  expectations, 
which  all  cherished.  Every  man  who  had  a  claim  expected 
to  sell  it  for  a  fortune  when  spring  came. 

Little  work  could  be  done  in  the  mines,  but  that  little 
showed  them  to  be  growing  richer  and  richer  for-every  foot 
of  progress  made  or  depth  attained.  The  excitement  was  at 


APPROACH  OF  SPRING. 


105 


fever  heat  in  California,  and  a  grand  rush  of  capitalists  was 
expected  as  soon  as  the  mountains  could  be  crossed.  This 
being  the  case,  those  who  were  wintering  in  Washoe  though 
physically  uncomfortable  were  comfortable  in  spirit.  Gold 
lent  its  hue  to  all  of  their  visions  of  the  future. 

Some  Indians  lingered  in  the  neighborhood,  and  they  were 
quite  as  hard  up  for  provisions  as  the  whites.     They  fre- 
quently came  to  the  cabins  of  the  miners  to  beg  food.     On 
such  occasions — like  some 
white  beggars— they  began 
business  by  presenting   a 
paper  to    be   read.      The 
paper  very  often   read  as 
follows : 

"This   Indian   is    a   d— d  old 

thief.     He  will  steal  anything  he 

can  lay  his  hands  on.    If  he  comes 

about  your  camp,  break  his  head. 

A  Friend." 

In  the  early  part  of  Feb- 
ruary it  began  to  grow 
warm.  Many  days  were  al- 
most as  warm  as  summer, 
but  of  nights  it  continued 
to  freeze.  Building  soon 
began,  and  in  March  many 
houses  were  going  up  in 
Virginia  City,  in  all  direc- 
tions, and  the  town  was 
roughly  laid  out  for  many 
a  mile  along  the  Comstock  lead.  People  began  to  flounder 
through  the  snow  from  California,  during  the  latter  part  of 
February,  and  early  in  March  began  to  cross  the  Sierras  in 
swarms.  Great  hardships  were  endured  by  some  of  the  first 
parties  that  crossed  the  mountains,  and  a  few  persons  lost  their 
lives  in  storms  that  suddenly  arose. 

Although  there  was  much  fine  weather  in  February,  March, 
and  April,  snow-squalls  were  of  frequent  occurrence  in  May 
and  even  as  late  as  June;  this,  however,  was  not  particularly 
out  of  place  in  that  country ;  it  still  does  the  same  way  out 


BUSINESS. 


106  "ZEPHYRS"  AND  A  VALANCHES. 

there.  It  is  a  region  that  has  no  climate  of  its  own.  What 
climate  it  has  is  blown  over  the  Sierras  from  California  and 
comes  in  fragments.  But  for  the  towering,  snow-clad  peaks 
of  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains,  Nevada  would  have  a  climate 
similar  to  that  of  California,  but  these  mountains  chill  all  the 
"  weather  "  that  passes  over  them. 

They  may  be  having  a  fine,  warm  rain  in  California,  but 
any  portion  of  it  that  reaches  Nevada  is  transformed  during 
its  passage  over  the  Sierras  and  descends  in  the  shape  of  snow. 
Owing  to  the  altitude  of  Virginia  City,  whenever  clouds  shut 
off  the  sun  for  any  considerable  length  of  time  it  becomes  cold. 

The  early  settlers  at  Virginia  made  the  acquaintance  of  the 
"  Washoe  zephyr"  during  this  first  winter  of  their  sojourn  in 
the  town.  This  "zephyr,"  as  it  is  sarcastically  termed,  is  a 
furious  westerly  gale  which  is  a  frequent  visitant  during  the 
fall  and  spring  months.  It  appears  to  come  sweeping  from 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  passing  over  California,  and  only  plunging 
down  to  the  earth  when  it  has  crossed  the  Sierras.  It  made 
wild  work  that  first  winter  with  the  frail  tenements  of  the 
first  settlers.  Canvas-houses,  tents,  and  brush-shanties  were 
scattered  right  and  left. 

During  the  prevalence  of  a  zephyr,  early  in  the  spring  of 
1860,  some  enterprising  Washoeite  performed  the  feat  of  steal- 
ing a  hot  stove.  A  canvas-house  occupied  by  a  lone  woman 
was  blown  down,  and  while  she  was  gone  to  find  some  men  to 
set  it  up,  her  stove  disappeared,  and  never  more  was  seen. 

Avalanches  also  put  in  an  appearance,  and  in  March,  a  man 
who  was  cutting  wood  on  a  hill  just  north  of  Virginia  was 
buried  by  one,  and  his  body  was  not  recovered  till  the  snow 
had  melted  away.  Avalanches  are  still  of  occasional  occur- 
rence, and  several  lives  have  been  lost  and  a  number  of 
buildings  demolished  in  the  southern  part  of  Virginia  City, 
by  heavy  slides  of  snow  rushing  down  the  side  of  Mount  Da- 
vidson into  the  western  suburbs  of  the  town. 

In  the  spring  of  1860,  an-  avalanche  which  fell  near  Silver 
City,  covered  the  mouth  of  a  tunnel  in  which  half  a  dozen 
miners  were  living.  It  came  down  in  the  night  when  they 
were  all  asleep.  At  the  usual  hour  in  the  morning  some  of 
the  men  awoke,  but  finding  it  still  dark,  turned  over  and  went 


A  LONG  NIGHT.  107 


to  sleep  again.  Others  of  the  party  did  the  same.  After  a 
time  all  were  tired  of  sleeping  and  began  talking  about  what 
a  long  night  it  seemed.  However,  they  concluded  it  was  all 
right,  and  each  again  addressed  himself  to  the  task  of  trying  to 
sleep  the  night  through.  All  would  not  do,  and  in  an  hour  or 
two  they  were  again  discussing  the  apparent  great  length  of 
the  night,  wondering,  also,  whether  or  not  all  hands  might 
not  be  unusually  wakeful. 

At  length,  one  of  the  party  said  he  would  go  out  to  the  mouth 
of  the  tunnel  and  see  if  he  could  perceive  any  sign  of  the 
approach  of  daylight.  On  reaching  the  mouth  of  the  tunnel,  he 
ran  his  nose  into  a  solid  bank  of  snow.  The  exclamation  of 
surprise  he  uttered,  brought  all  to  their  feet.  They  soon  com- 
prehended the  situation.  Luckily  they  had  several  shovels  in 


GOOD   MORNING. 

the  tunnel.  Lighting  a  candle,  they  set  to  work,  and  in  half  an 
hour  had  dug  their  way  out,  when  they  found  that  it  was  almost 
sundown. 

When  warm  weather  came,  and  men  and  money  were  pouring 
in  from  California,  those  who  had  wintered  in  the  several  ne\r 
towns  of  Washoe  forgot  all  the  troubles  they  had  had  and  all 
the  hardships  they  had  passed  through.  They  were  on  the  alert 
to  sell  claims,  and  many  did  realize  handsome  little  fortunes,  as 
all  the  new  comers  were  wild  with  excitement,  and  all  were 


108 


QUEER  INCIDENTS. 


anxious  to  get  hold  of  ground  near 
the  mines.  Newcomers  who  had  no 
money,  prospected  for  new  leads,  or 
"jumped  "the  claims  of  parties  who 
had  made  locations  the  previous  fall. 
This  made  times  lively,  and  numer- 
ous battles,  with  guns  and  pistols  were 
the  result. 

One  day  while  a  battle  was  raging 
at  a  claim  on  the  hillside,  near  the 
town,  a  big  long-legged  fellow,  with 
GOING  IN.  a    knife    and    pistol    slung    to    his 

belt, 'started  up  to  where  the  fight  was  raging,  on  a  dead  run. 


Those  who  were 
fair  said  :  "  Now, 
fly,  when  that  f el- 
ground  !  "  When 
the  hill,  a  pistol  ball 
took  off  a  portion 
never  for  an  in- 
but  as  the  ball  cut 
he  spun  round  on 
running  he  did 
the  other  direction. 


watching  the  af- 
we  shall  see  the  fur 
low  gets  on  the 
about  half  way  up 
came  along  and 
of  his  goatee.x/  He 
stant  ceased  to  run, 
through  his  goatee 
his  heel  and  the 
after  that  was  all  in 
From  his  start  till 
was  unbroken. 


his  return,  his  gait  CHANGE  OF  MIND. 

An  honest  Dutchman  who,  at  great  pains  and  expense,  had 
built  him  a  cabin  in  the  northern  part 
of  the  place,  came  into  town  one  eve- 
ning to  make  some  purchases.  When 
he  went  home  he  found  his  cabin  jumped. 
To  add  insult  to  injury  the  jumpers  were 
fiddling  and  dancing,  had  a  lot  of  whisky, 
and  were  having  a  regular  house-warm- 
ing. The  Dutchman  had  to  go  and  raise 
an  army  of  his  friends  before  he  could 
drive  the  intruders  out.  It  was  three  or 
four  days  before  he  regained  possession 
of  his  cabin.  Such  occurrences  were  not  COMING  BACK. 

rare,  and  persons  were  often  placed  iii  very  annoying  situations. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

EARLY   MINING. 

DURING  the  spring  of  '60,  two  mining  companies  were 
at  war  about  their  locations,  and  one  company  threat- 
ened the  other  with  an  injunction.  There  had  been 
considerable  talk  among  members  of  the  threatened  company 
about  this  injunction  being  put  on  their  claim.  Two  green 
Irishmen  of  the  company,  who  heard  this,  and  who  were  at 
work  on  the  claim,  concluded  that  they  would  keep  a  bright 
lookout  for  this  injunction.  They  had  no  idea  what  it  was 
like,  but  if  anything  of  the  kind  was  going  to  be  put  upon 
their  claim  they'd  see  about  it.  Every  day  they  kept  a  bright 
eye  open  for  the  injunction,  but  saw  nothing  stuck  up  any- 
where about  their  claim  that  looked  like  one. 

About  this  time,  however,  it  so  happened  that  a  party  of 
surveyors  were  engaged  in  running  out  a  road  in  that  neigh- 
borhood. The  surveyors  arrived  at  the  disputed  claim  just  at 
noon,  and,  leaving  their  theodolite  standing  on  the  line  they 
were  running,  went  into  town  to  get  dinner.  Pat  and  Mike 
were  also  away  at  dinner,  but  got  back  to  their  claim  before 
the  party  of  surveyors  returned.  It  so  chanced  that  the  theod- 
olite had  been  left  standing  on  the  bank  immediately  above 
the  cut  in  which  the  two  sons  of  Erin  had  been  at  work.  The 
first  thing  that  caught  the  eye  of  Pat  and  Mike,  was  the  large 
and  costly  instrument,  standing  on  the  bank,  as  though  on 
guard  over  the  cut  in  which  they  had  been  working. 

"By  the  powers  'o  war,  Pat! "cries  Mike,  "what  divilish 
thing  is  that,  standing  there  on  its  three  legs?" 

"  It  looks  like  some  quare  kind  of  patent  invintion,"  said 

109 


110 


BRING  ON  YOUR  INJUNCTIONS." 


Pat,  "wid  all  of  its  brass  muzzles  and  stop-cocks.  What 
would  it  be,  anyhow  ?  " 

"  Well,  now,"  said  Mike,  "  I  wondther  if  it  isn't  the  thaving 
injunction  thim  rascally  divils  over  beyant  have  been  swearin' 
they'd  put  upon  the  claim  ?  " 

"  By  the  sivin  churches,  ye've  said  it !  "  yelled  Pat.  "  Let's 
afther  it !  " 

With  this,  one  seized  a  pick,  the  other  a  crowbar,  and  rush- 
ing upon  the  theodolite  they  smashed  it  into  a  hundred  pieces, 


BUSTIN    THE   INJUNCTION. 

crying — "  This  for  all  of  yer  infernal  injunctions  ! "  Pat  flung 
one  leg  of  the  instrument  as  far  as  he  could  send  it,  yelling : 
"  To  the  divil  wid  all  injunctions  !  "  Mike  sent  another  whirl- 
ing down  the  hill,  shouting:  "Bring  on  yer  injunctions, 
we're  the  lads  that  can  knock  the  stuffin'  out  of  the  best  and  the 
biggest  of  thim  !  "  Just  as  the  pair  had  succeeded  in  "  bustin' 
up  the  injunction  "  the  party  of  surveyors  returned.  The 
interview  between  them  and  the  two  Irishmen  was  short,  but, 
as  Pat  afterwards  acknowledged,  it  was  "  mighty  improvin." 
The  newcomers  who  swarmed  across  the  Sierras  spread 
along  the  Comstock  range  for  miles,  pitching  their  tents  and 
establishing  their  camps  wherever  wood  and  water  were  to 
be  found.  Having  thus  established  their  headquarters  they 
scouted  out  on  prospecting  expeditions  in  all  directions 


TESTING   ORES  FOR  GOLD.  HI 

among  the  hills.  In  places  on  the  ravines  and  in  the  flats, 
where  good  water  and  some  grass  were  to  be  found,  there  were 
to  be  seen  considerable  villages  of  tents  and  brush  shanties. 

Of  evenings,  when  the  prospectors  returned  from  the  hills, 
there  was  a  big  time  among  them,  as  they  exhibited  specimens 
of  ore  from  the  ledges  they  had  discovered  and  compared 
notes.  All  gathered  about  and  opinions  were  passed  in  regard 
to  the  value  of  the  ores  brought  in. 

The  next  business  was  to  test  the  ores  for  the  precious 
metals.  In  gold-bearing  quartz,  small  specks  of  gold  were 
often  to  be  seen  with  the  naked  eye  or  aided  by  a  small  mag- 
nifying glass,  such  as  every  prospector  carried  in  his  vest 
pocket  for  use  in  the  examination  of  ores.  If  gold  could  be 
seen  at  all,  either  with  the  naked  eye  or  the  glass,  it  was 
considered  a  good  sign.  In  order  to  further  test  the  specimen, 
it  was  then  either  beaten  to  a  powder  in  a  mortar  or  was 
ground  as  fine1  as  flour  on  a  large  flat  stone,  using  a  smaller 
stone  for  a  muller.  This  pulverized  ore  was  then  placed  in  a 
"  horn,"  a  little  canoe-shaped  vessel  made  of  the  split  horn  of 
an  ox,  when  it  was  carefully  washed  out,  much  as  auriferous 
gravel  is  washed  in  a  pan.  The  gold,  in  case  the  ore  experi- 
mented upon  contained  that  metal,  was  found  lying  in  a 
yellow  streak  in  the  bottom  of  the  horn ;  generally  small 
particles  of  gold  dust,  almost  as  fine  as  flour. 

This  was  the  test  for  gold,  and  any  miner  was  able  to  judge, 
from  the  "prospect"  obtained  in  his  horn,  whether  or  not  the 
quartz  from  which  it  came  was  rich  enough  to  pay  for  working 
in  a  mill. 

In  testing  ores  for  silver,  the  miners  in  the  early  days  used 
acids.  If  a  specimen  of  ore  was  supposed  to  contain  silver,  it 
was  pulverized  in  the  same  way  as  gold-bearing  quartz,  then 
was  placed  in  the  horn  and  the  lighter  matter  it  contained 
washed  out.  When  that  which  remained  in  the  horn  appeared 
to  be  principally  sulphurets  and  other  metalline  matter,  the 
washing  ceased.  The  heavy  residuum  was  then  washed  from 
the  horn  into  a  matrass  (a  flask  of  annealed  glass,  with  a  narrow 
neck  and  a  broad  bottom).  Nitric  acid  was  then  poured  into  the 
matrass  until  the  matter  to  be  tested  was  covered,  when  the  flask 
was  suspended  over  the  flame  of  a  candle  or  lamp  and  boiled  until 


112  TESTING  ORES  FOR  SIL  VER. 

the  fumes  escaping   (which  are  for  a  time  red)  came  off  white 
The  boiling  operation  was  then  presumed  to  be  completed. 

When  the  contents  of  the  matrass  had  been  allowed  to  cool  and 
settle,  the  liquid  portion  was  poured  off  into  a  vial  of  clear,  thin 
glass,  called  a  test-tube.  A  few  drops  of  a  strong  solution  of 
common  salt  was  now  poured  into  the  test-tube.  If  the  ore  oper- 
ated upon  contained  silver,  the  contents  of  the  test-tube  would  at 
once  assume  a  milky  hue.  This  would  begin  at  the  top  of  the 
liquid  in  the  tube,  where  the  salt  solution  first  touched  the  solu- 
tion of  silver  in  the  acid  and  would  be  seen  to  gradually  descend 
to  the  bottom  of  the  vial.  If  there  was  much  silver  in  the  ore, 
the  milky  matter  formed  was  quite  thick,  and  clinging  together 
descends  to  the  bottom  of  the  tube  in  the  form  of  little  ropes. 

Muriatic  acid  poured  into  the  tube  produced  the  same  effect 
as  the  solution  of  salt  and  water.  The  white  matter  formed  was 
the  chloride  of  silver. 

In  case  the  prospector  had  any  doubt  about  what  he  had 
obtained  being  genuine  chloride  of  silver,  he  held  the  test- 
tube  in  the  strong  light  of  the  sun  for  a  few  minutes,  when  the 
chloride  would  be  seen  to  asume  a  rich  purple  color — a  color 
which  no  photographer  would  ever  mistake.  Those  who  wish  to 
try  this  experiment  may  do  so  anywhere.  If  no  silver  ore  is  to  be 
had  a  few  filings  of  a  silver  coin,  or  anything  containing  silver, 
may  be  used.  The  boiling  in  nitric  acid  may  be  performed  in  a 
small  saucer  of  ordinary  table  ware  and  a  common  vial  may  be 
used  in  lieu  of  a  test-tube. 

The  chloride  of  silver  obtained  in  the  bottom  of  the  tube 
may  easily  be  reduced  to  the  metallic  state.  To  do  this  it  is 
dried  and  placed  in  a  small  hole  scooped  out  in  a  piece  of 
charcoal,  when  the  flame  of  a  candle  is  blown  upon  it  until  it 
is  melted,  and  a  bright  little  button  of  pure  silver  is  obtained. 
Lead  ore  (galena)  treated  with  nitric  acid,  as  in  testing  silver 
ore,  will  produce  a  chloride  somewhat  resembling  that  of  sil- 
ver, but  is  more  granular  in  appearance,  does  not  turn  purple 
in  the  light  of  the  sun,  and  is  dissolved  in  twenty  times  its  bulk 
of  water ;  whereas  washing  with  water  does  not  dissolve  the 
chloride  of  silver,  no  matter  how  many  times  the  washings 
are  repeated. 

If  the  presence  of  copper  is  suspected  in  the  ore  tested  for 


A  FIRE  ASSAY.  H3 


silver,  a  bit  of  bright  iron  wire  or  the  blade  of  a  penknife  may 
be  dipped  into  the  solution  obtained  from  the  specimen,  either 
before  or  after  adding  the  salt,  when,  if  copper  be  present,  the 
wire  or  knife  will  show  a  coating  of  it  in  the  metallic  state. 

Chloride  ores  of  silver  cannot  be  tested  by  the  acid  method 
— they  being  chloride  of  silver  in  advance  of  the  operation. 
These  ores  must  be  subjected  to  the  test  of  a  fire  assay — must 
be  smelted  in  a  crucible.  This  being  the  case,  our  prospectors 
were  not  utterly  cast  down  when  their  pet  specimens  failed 
to  show  silver  when  tested  by  the  acid  process.  They  at  once 
declared  that  the  silver  was  in  the  form  of  a  chloride,  and  were 
not  satisfied  that  they  were  not  millionaires,  until  they  had 
carried  their  specimens  to  some  assay  office  and  had  a  regular 
fire  assay  made.  Then,  when  the  certificate  of  the  assayer 
came,  they  were  generally  obliged  to  take  a  back  seat,  receiving 
the  imprecations  of  the  camp.  Occasionally,  however,  a  "  big 
assay"  was  obtained.  Then  there  was  a  grand  excitement. 
Every  man  in  the  camp  wanted  the  lucky  man  to  put  him 
down  in  his  notice  of  location  for  a  claim  of  200  feet — the 
amount  of  ground  that  could  be  taken  up  by  one  man  under 
the  revised  laws  of  the  district.  In  order  to  get  an  interest  in 
a  claim  that  promised  to  turn  out  a  "  big  thing,"  there  was 
much  pulling  and  hauling,  buzzing  and  log-rolling,  among  the 
miners  who  knew  of  the  "  strike." 

The  miners  all  did  their  own  cooking,  but  this  was  no  great 
task,  as  when  you  had  mentioned  slapjacks,  beans,  bacon,, 
and  coffee,  you  were  at  the  bottom  of  the  bill  of  fare.  A  few 
men,  however,  in  every  camp,  developed  a  decided  genius  in 
the  art  culinary  and  concocted  some  wonderful  dishes,  the 
raw  material  at  hand  considered. 

About  three-fourths  of  the  prospecting  miners  who  came 
over  from  California,  packed  their  traps  on  the  backs  of  don- 
keys, and,  driving  these  before  them,  boldly,  if  not  swiftly, 
scaled  the  Sierras.  These  donkeys  became  a  great  nuisance 
about  the  several  camps.  All  became  thieves  of  the  most 
accomplished  type.  They  would  steal  flour,  sugar,  bacon, 
beans,  and  everything  eatable  about  the  camp.  They  would 
even  devour  gunny  sacks  in  which  bacon  had  been  packed, 
old  woollen  shirts  and  almost  everything  else  but  the  picks 
7 


VALUABLE  DONKEYS. 


and  shovels.  The  donkeys  would  be  seen  demurely  grazing 
on  the  flats  and  on  the  hillsides  when  the  miners  left  camp  in 
the  morning  to  go  out  prospecting,  but  all  the  time  had  one 
eye  upon  every  movement  that  was  made.  Hardly  were  the 
miners  out  of  sight  ere  the  donkeys  were  in  the  camp,  with 
heads  in  the  tents  devouring  all  within  reach.  When  the 
miners  returned  the  donkeys  were  all  out  picking  about  on 
the  hillsides,  as  calmly  as  though  nothing  had  happened  ;  but 
the  swearing  heard  in  camp,  as  the  work  of  the  cunning 
beasts  came  to  light,  would  have  furnished  any  ordinary  bull- 
driver  a  stock  of  oaths  that  he  could  not  exhaust  in  six  months. 

One  of  these  donkeys  —  too  confiding  —  was  caught  in  the  act. 
Many  of  the  miners  used  a  kind  of  flour,  called  "  self-rising." 
There  was  mixed  with  it  when  it  was  ground  all  of  the  ingred- 
ients used  in  the  manufacture  of  yeast  powders.  All  the  miner 
had  to  do  in  making  bread  from  this  flour  was  to  add  the 
proper  quantity  of  water  and  mix  it,  when  it  "  came  up  " 
beautifully.  The  donkey  in  question  had  struck  a  sack  of 
this  flour  and  had  eaten  all  he  could  hold  of  it.  He  then 
went  down  to  a  spring,  near  the  camp,  and  drank  a  quantity 
of  water.  When  we  came  home  that  evening  Mr.  Donkey 
was  still  at  the  spring.  The  self-rising  principle  in  the  flour 
had  done  its  work.  The  beast  was  round  as  an  apple  and  his 
legs  stood  out  like  those  of  a  carpenter's  bench.  He  was  very 
dead.  Here  was  one  of  the  thieves.  Cunning  as  he  had  been, 
he  was  caught  at  last,  and  with  "  wool  in  his  teeth." 

A  queer  genius  thus  described  the  donkey,  called  by  every- 
body in.  that  region,  "  The  Washoe  Canary  "  : 

SOME  ACCOUNT  OF  YE  WASHOE  CANARY. 

Let  it  be  proclaimed  at  the  outset  that  ye  Washoe  canary  is  not  at  all  a 
bird  ;  and,  though  hee  hath  voice  in  great  volume,  lyke  unto  that  of  a  prima 
donna,  yet  is  hee  no  sweet  singer  in  Israel.  Hee  is  none  other  than  ye  un- 
gainly beaste  known  in  other  landes  as  ye  jackass.  You  may  many  times 
observe  ye  Washoe  canary  strolling  at  hys  leasure  high  up  on  the  side-  of  ye 
craggy  hill  and  in  ye  declivous  place,  basking  in  ye  picturesque  and  charging 
hys  soul  wyth  ye  majestic.  Hee  rolleth  abroad  hys  poetic  eye  upon  ye  beauties 
of  nature  ;  yea,  expandeth  hys  nostryls  and  drinketh  in  sublimity. 

Hee  looketh  about  hym  upon  ye  rocks  and  ye  sage-bushes  ;  he  beholdeth 
ye  lizard  basking  in  ye  sun,  and  observeth  ye  gambols  of  ye  horned  toad. 
Straightway  hys  poetic  imagination  becometh  heated,  he  feeleth  ye  spirit 
upon  him  ;  hee  becometh  puffed  up  with  ye  ardent  intensity  of  hys  elevated 


THE   W A  SHOE  CANARY.  H5 


sensations  ;  he  braceth  outwardly  hys  feet  and  poureth  forth  in  long-drawn, 
triumphant  gushes  hys  thunderous  notes  of  rapture,  the  meanwhile  wielding 
hys  tayle  up  and  down  in  the  most  wanton  manner.  Hys  musick  does  not 
approach  unto  ye  ravishing  strains  whyche  descended  'through  ye  charmed 
mountain  of  Alfouran,  and  overflowed  with  melody  the  cell  of  the  hermit 
Sanballad.  It  hath,  in  some  parts,  a  quaver  more  of  Chinese  harmoniousness. 

A  wild,  uneducated  species  of  canary  was  thought  worthy  of  mention  in  ye 
booke  of  Job,  among  the  more  note-worthy  beasts  and  birds  of  ye  earth ;  now, 
how  much  more  .worthy  of  description  must  be  the  cultivated  and  highly 
accomplished  warbler  whyche  is  ye  subject  of  this  briefe  hystory  ?  We  shall 
presently  see  that  hee  will  compare  favorably  with  any  fowl  or  beaste  of 
whyche  we  have  mention  in  ye  goode  booke.  Of  ye  leviathan  we  read — 
"  Who  can  come  to  him  with  a  double  bridle  ?  "  But,  ah  !  who  dare  come  to 
ye  Washoe  canary  wythe  a  Spanish-bitted  double  bridle,  two  rope  halters 
and  a  lasso  ?  Again,  of  ye  leviathan  :  *'  Lay  thine  hand  upon  hym,  remember 
the  battle,  do  no  more."  Verily,  I  say  of  ye  Washoe  canary — lay  thine  hand 
upon  hym,  remember  hys  heeles,  do  no  more. 

Of  ye  behemoth  it  is  said  :  "  He  moveth  hys  tayle  lyke  a  cedar,"  but  when 
ye  Washoe  canary  giveth  vent  to  hys  sudden  inspiration  in  an  impromptu 
vocal  effort  he  moveth  hys  tayle  like  unto  two  cedars  and  one  pump-handle. 

Again,  of  ye  behemoth — "  He  eateth  grass  as  an  ox."  Ye  Washoe  canary 
not  only  eateth  grass,  but  in  ye  wild  luxuriance  of  hys  voluptuous  fancy,  and 
hys  unbounded  confidence  in  hys  digestive  -capacity,  rioteth  in  ye  most  reck- 
less manner  on  sage-brush,  prickly-pears,  thorns  and  greasewood. 

Of  ye  horse  :  "  He  smelleth  ye  battle  afar  off  and  saith,  '  ha,  ha  ! '"  Now, 
not  any  horse  can  further  smell  -out  a  thing  presumed  to  be  hidden — sugar, 
bacon,  and  ye  lyke — than  ye  Washoe  canary — then,  indeed,  hys  "yee-haw" 
far  surpasseth  the  "  ha,  ha  ! "  of  'a.  horse-laugh.  What  are  ye  wings  of  ye 
peacock  or  ye  feathers  of  ye  ostriche  to  ye  fierceness  of  hys  foretop  and  ye 
widespread  awfulness  of  hys  ears  ? 

Of  ye  horse  :  "  He  swalloweth  ye  ground  in  fierceness  and  rage."  Now, 
ye  Washoe  canary  swalloweth  woolen  shirts,  old  breeches,  gunny  sacks  and 
dilapidated  hoop-skirts  when  in  a  state  of  pensive  good  nature — what,  then, 
must  we  suppose  hym  capable  of  swallowing,  once  hys  wrath  is  enkindled 
and  all  ye  fearful  ferocity  of  hys  nature  is  aroused ;  Such  is  ye  Washoe 
canary.  Be  in  haste  at  no  time  to  proclaim  a  victory  over  him. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

MIGRATION    ON   A    LARGE    SCALE. 

ON  the  Pacific  Coast  there  is  felt  every  spring  a  kind  of 
unrest — men  of  all  classes  feel  as  if  they  should  go  some- 
where. This  feeling  is  particularly  strong  among  miners, 
and  they  look  about  to  see  if  some  region  cannot  be  thought  of  into 
which  they  may  make  a  prospecting  raid.  Others  feel  like  going 
up  into  the  mountains,  or  some  wild  and  far-away  region,  on 
general  principles — just  to  be  rambling  and  seeing  something 
new  and  picturesque.  To  desire  to  be  on  the  move  when  spring 
opens  appears  to  be  natural  to  all  mankind — to  be  a  sort  of 
animal  instinct  implanted  in  the  human  race,  and  an  instinct 
probably  never  wholly  eradicated  by  the  influences  of  even  the 
most  refined  civilization. 

With  the  opening  of  spring,  our  Indians  and  all  savage  tribes 
of  people  are  on  the  move.  Even  among  wild  animals  the 
same  migratory  instinct  is  to  be  observed.  Bear,  deer,  elk,  and 
other  animals  that  have  wintered  in  the  valleys,  move  up  into  the 
mountains,  when  the  snow  has  disappeared  under  the  warmth 
of  the  returning  sun.  The  spring  unrest  is  doubtless  now  much 
less  strong  within  us,  than  at  that  remote  period  when  we  sported 
tails,  yet  we  still  retain  in  some  degree  this  instinct  of  our  former 
savage  state  ;  it  is  still  in  us,  and  at  each  return  of  the  season  for 
breaking  up  camp  and  moving  out  of  winter  quarters  it  takes  pos- 
session of  us.  In  the  older  settled  communities,  the  people  may 
not  think  of  wandering  to  any  great  distance,  but  even  there  the 
farmer  feels  best  when  he  is  rambling  in  his  farthest  fields,  and  his 
wife  prefers  working  in  her  garden  and  roving  in  the  open  air, 
to  remaining  in  her  house. 

116 


THE  MIGRA  TOR  Y  INSTINCT.  117 

No  doubt  in  the  dim  and  distant  ages  of  the  past — when  we 
still  retained  our  caudal  appendages — spring  ,was  a  stirring 
season  with  the  race.  There  was  then  a  general  awakening  of 
the  tribes.  Knowing  nothing,  at  that  time,  of  the  means  by 
which  we  might  provide  artificial  warmth,  when  the  rigors  of 
winter  began  to  be  felt  we  all  left  the  mountains.  Descending 
into  the  deepest  and  most  sheltered  valleys,  we  there  hibernated, 
as  best  we  might,  in  the  mouths  of  caves  and  in  sunny  nooks 
among  the  hills,  till  the  spring  sun  again  warmed  us  into  life. 
When  it  was  judged  time  to  be  on  the  move  toward  the  mountains, 
the  sagacious  elders  probably  took  up  their  position  on  some 
prominent  ledge  of  rock  above  the  sheltering  ravine  in  which 
the  winter  had  been  passed,  and  addressed  the  assembled  tribe. 
What  a  glad  chorus  of  yelps  applauded  the  sage  chatterings  of 
the  orators,  and  what  a  wildly  exultant  waving  of  tails  was  there 
when  it  was  known  all  were  to  migrate  "  to  fresh  woods  and 
pastures  new !  " 

The  discovery  of  the  silver  mines  in  Nevada  gave  all  an 
excellent  opportunity  of  gratifying  their  migratory  instincts, 
and  miners  and  men  of  all  classes  and  all  trades  and  profes- 
sions flocked  over  the  Sierras,  in  the  spring  of  1860. 

At  first  they  came  on  foot,  driving  donkeys  or  other  pack- 
animals  before  them,  or  on  horseback,  riding  where  they 
could  and  leading  their  horses  where  the  snow  was  soft,  but 
soon  sleighs  and  stages  were  started,  and  in  some  shape 
floundered  through  with  their  passengers.  Saddle  trains  for 
passengers  were  started,  however,  before  vehicles  of  any  kind 
began  to  run,  and  the  snow  passed  over  was  in  many  places 
from  thirty  to  sixty  feet  in  depth. 

At  first  there  was  not  sufficient  shelter  for  the  newcomers, 
and  they  crowded  to  overflowing  every  building  of  whatever 
kind,  in  all  the  towns  along  the  Comstock  range.  But  houses 
were  rapidly  being  built  in  all  directions,  and  the  weather  soon 
became  warm  enough  to  allow  of  camping  out  in  comfort 
almost  anywhere ;  men  who  had  rolled  up  in  their  blankets 
and  slept  on  the  snow,  high  up  on  the  frosty  Sierras,  did  not 
much  mind  sleeping  in  the  open  air  on  the  lower  hills. 

The  newcomers  from  California  not  only  prospected  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Virginia,  Gold  Hill,  Silver  City,  and  all 


118  THE  PIUTE   WAR. 


the  hills  surrounding  these  towns  and  the  Comstock,  but 
scouted  out  in  all  directions  to  the  distance  of  from  fifty  to 
one  hundred  miles.  They  generally  went  in  parties  of  from 
five  or  six  to  a  dozen  or  more  men,  and  when  they  traveled 
any  great  distance,  were  mounted,  and  had  pack  animals  with 
them,  to  carry  their  provisions  and  tools. 

The  excitement  in  regard  to  the  mines  discovered  and  being 
worked,  those  newly  found  and  those  yet  to  be  found — in 
regard  to  town  sites,  mill  sites  and  all  manner  of  property  in 
the  new  land — was  at  its  greatest  height,  when  that  occurred 
which  for  a  time  paralyzed  every  industry,  and  alike  brought 
business  and  prospecting  to  a  stand.  A  Pony  rider — the  mail 
was  then  being  carried  across  the  Plains  and  over  the  Sierras 
to  California  by  Pony  Express — came  in  and  reported  that  the 
Piute  Indians,  till  then  friendly  toward  the  whites,  had  burned 
Williams'  Station,  on  the  Carson  River,  thirty-one  miles 
below  Dayton,  and  had  murdered  two  or  three  men  whom 
they  found  in  charge. 

The  news  that  the  Piutes  were  on  the  war  path,  and  had 
begun  killing  and  burning,  spread  like  wild-fire  through  the 
several  towns  and  settlements  of  the  country.  It  was  deter- 
mined that  the  murderous  redskins  should  be  punished. 
There  was  a  call  for  volunteers  in  all  the  towns,  and  the  call 
was  promptly  responded  to  everywhere. 

The  news  of  the  burning  of  Williams'  Station,  and  the  mur- 
ders there,  reached  Virginia  City,  May  8th,  1860,  and  May  pth 
a  party  of  105  men,  volunteers  from  the  several  towns,  under 
command  of  Major  Ormsby,  of  Carson  City,  marched  down 
the  Carson  River  for  the  purpose  of  overtaking  the  Indians, 
and  inflicting  upon  them  a  proper  chastisement. 

As  I  am  not  writing  a  history  of  Nevada  I  shall  leave  a 
detailed  account  of  the  "Indian  war"  to  be  given  by  some 
future  writer.  I  shall  but  briefly  sketch  this  first  and  last 
Indian  trouble  in  Nevada,  not  attempting  to  give  the  names 
of  more  than  a  few  of  the  men  who  were  prominent  partici- 
pants in  the  battles  at  Pyramid  Lake. 

The  men  under  Major  Ormsby  were  poorly  armed,  badly 
mounted,  and  almost  wholly  unorganized.  The  majority  of 
the  men  thought  that  there  would  not  be  much  of  a  fight. 


BA  TTLE  OF  P  YRAMID  LAKE.  H9 

They  thought  they  should  probably  have  a  bit  of  a  skirmish 
with  the  Indians,  kill  a  few  of  them,  capture  a  lot  of  ponies, 
and  on  the  whole  have  rather  a  good  time.  Major  Ormsby 
and  a  few  of  the  leading  men  and  old  settlers  doubtless  knew 
the  Indians  better,  but  most  of  the  recent  arrivals  from  Cali- 
fornia who  volunteered  on  the  occasion  thought  it  would  turn 
out  a  sort  of  pleasure  excursion.  They  were  wofully  disap- 
pointed. Finding  no  Indians  at  Williams'  Station  on  his 
arrival  there,  Major  Ormsby  and  command  marched  toward 
Pyramid  Lake,  known  to  be  the  headquarters  of  the  Piute 
tribe  in  that  region  of  country,  and  distant  less  than  two  days' 
march. 

On  the  morning  of  the  i2th  of  May,  on  the  Truckee  River, 
at  a  point  about  three  miles  from  Pyramid  Lake,  they  found 
a  party  of  Indians  occupying  a  strong  position  on  a  rocky 
hill.  They  attacked  these  Indians,  who  retreated  after  firing 
a  few  shots,  falling  back  along  the  sides  of  a  ravine. 

As  the  Indians  fell  back  they  continued  a  scattering  fire. 
The  whites  charged  into  the  ravine  in  pursuit.  They  had 
proceeded  some  distance  when  a  body  of  two  or  three  hundred 
Indians  suddenly  confronted  them,  pouring  into  their  ranks 
in  quick  succession  several  deadly  volleys. 

On  the  side  of  the  whites  many  men  and  horses  fell  at  this 
spot.  The  volunteers  were  staggered  by  this  sudden  on- 
slaught, and  made  but  a  feeble  reply  to  the  fire  of  the  enemy. 
At  this  critical  juncture  it  was  observed  that  the  Indians  were 
gathering  in  the  ravine  behind  them,  when  a  precipitate 
retreat  was  made  for  a  piece  of  woods  on  the  river.  The 
Indians  hotly  pursued  them,  firing  as  they  advanced.  At  the 
edge  of  the  wood  the  whites  dismounted  and  tried  to  make 
a  stand,  but  the  Indians  gathered  from  all  sides,  pouring  in  a 
rapid  and  galling  fire,  killing  several  men  and  horses.  The 
men  were  then  ordered  to  mount  for  another  charge.  While 
this  was  being  done  the  Indians  rushed  forward,  firing  and 
yelling,  throwing  the  whites  into  a  confusion  which  ended  in 
a  precipitate  and  disorderly  retreat. 

Many  men  had  no  horses,  and  these  fell  an  easy  prey  to  the 
elated  and  victorious  savages  who  pursued  the  whites  a  dis- 
tance of  fifteen  or  twenty  miles,  even  overtaking  and  killing 
men  who  were  tolerably  well  mounted. 


120  SECOND  EXPEDITION. 

The  trail  of  the  retreating  volunteers  was  strewn  with  dead 
bodies,  saddles,  guns,  knives,  pistols,  and  blankets,  thrown 
away  when  the  chase  became  desperate,  and  every  man  was 
trying  to  save  his  own  life.  Of  the  105  men  who  went  into 
the  fight  76  were  killed  and  a  few  wounded,  slightly,  who 
managed  to  escape. 

Among  the  killed  was  Major  Ormsby,  the  commander  of 
the  expedition,  an  old  resident  in  the  country;  and  Henry 
Meredith,  a  young  lawyer  from  Nevada  City,  California,  a  man 
well-known  and  highly  esteemed  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  At  the 
first  volley  fired  by  the  Indians,  in  the  canon  into  which  the 
command  had  been  entrapped,  Meredith  was  wounded  and 
fell  from  his  horse,  but  rose  on  one  knee  and  fired  three  shots 
from  his  revolver  as  the  foe  advanced  upon  him. 

When  the  survivors  of  this  slaughter  reached  Virginia  City 
and  told  the  news  of  the  defeat,  the  excitement  was  intense. 
In  all  the  towns  it  began  to  be  feared  that  the  Indians,  elated 
by  their  victory,  would  come  in  and  sweep  everything  before 
them.  It  was  said  that  there  were  500  warriors  in  the  fight  at 
Pyramid  Lake  and  it  was  supposed  that  the  Piutes  could 
muster  5,000  men.  Dispatches  were  sent  to  California  for 
regular  troops,  and  as  the  news  spread  men  volunteered  and 
companies  were  formed  in  Sacramento,  Nevada  City  and 
Downieville,  California.  Men  also  volunteered  again  in  the 
several  Washoe  towns,  and  soon  an  army  of  several  hundred 
men,  regulars  and  volunteers,  was  in  the  field  for  the  effect- 
ual putting  down  of  the  savages. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

TROUBLE    WITH    THE    INDIANS. 

MEANTIME  there  was  a  grand  panic  in  the  several  towns 
along  the  Comstock  range.      Many  men,  women,  and 
children  at  once  left   for  California.     The  night  after 
the   survivors   of  the  fight  at  Pyramid  Lake  came  in,  it  was 
reported  in  Virginia  City  and  Gold  Hill  that  the  Indians  were 
advancing  in  full  force  and  were  but  twenty  miles  away.     This 
news  caused  a  grand  stampede,  many  men  suddenly  remembering 
that  they  had  business  on  the  other  side  of'  the  Sierra  Nevada 
Mountains. 

At  Virginia  City,  during  this  season  of  alar*is,  the  women  and 
children  who  remained  were  corraled  for  safety  in  a  large  stone 
hotel,  that  was  being  built  by  Peter  O'Riley,  and  the  walls  of 
which  were  up  to  such  a  height  that  it  made  a  pretty  fair  sort  of 
a  fort. 

There  were  frequent  night  alarms  and  at  times  it  was  reported 
that  the  Indians  were  on  their  way  up  Six-mile  Canon  to  attack  the 
town.  There  were  but  two  classes  of  persons  in  the  place,  those 
who  were  not  at  all  frightened,  and  those  who  were  frightened 
almost  out  of  their  wits. 

One  night  when  there  was  an  alarm  at  Virginia,  a  Dutchman 
got  his  partner  to  let  him  down  into  a  shaft,  about  fifty  feet  in 
depth,  thinking  that  about  the  safest  place  that  could  be  found 
in  case  of  an  Indian  raid. 

After  the  Dutchman  had  been  deposited  at  the  bottom  of  the 
shaft  his  partner  went  down  into  the  town.  He  had  been  there 
but  a  short  time  before  a  lot  of  horses  and  mules  were  stampeded 
somewhere  down  the  canon  and  came  charging  up  toward  the 

121 


122  AN  UNL  UCK  Y  D  UTCHMAN. 

town  with  great  clatter.  All  thought  the  Indians  were  surely 
coming  this  time,  and  not  a  few  went  out  of  the  town  by  the  back 
trails  and  struck  out  for  California. 

Among  these  was  the  Dutchman's  partner.  In  his  fright 
he  thought  only  of  himself.  The  poor  Teuton  roosted  at  the 
bottom  of  the  shaft  for  three  days  and  nights  before  he  was  dis- 
covered, and  was  almost  dead  when  taken  out. 

The  people  of  Silver  City  determined  to  stand  their  ground. 
They  were  on  the  war-path.  Just  above  their  town,  on  Gold 
Canon,  rugged  rocks  rise  to  the  height  of  two  hundred  feet  or 
more,  leaving  a  very  narrow  pass.  This  place  is  called  the 
Devil's  Gate,  and  here  the  Silverites  determined  to  make  the 
Indians  smell  "villainous  saltpeter."  They  went  up  on  top  of 
the  Devil's  Gate,  and  built  a  stone  fort  about  two  rods  in  diame- 
ter. The  genius  in  command  of  this  enterprise  then  bored  out 
a  pine  log,  hooped  it  with  iron  bands,  and  mounting  it  in  the  fort 
as  a  cannon,  filled  it  full  of  pieces  of  scrap-iron,  bits  of  chain, 
and  the  like.  The  muzzle  was  so  pointed  that  when  fired  it 
would  sweep  the  canon  for  a  great  distance,  making  it  very  un- 
pleasant for  any  Indians  who  might  happen  to  be  jogging  up  that 
way. 

After  the  war  was  over,  some  parties  one  day  concluded  to 
fire  this  wooden  gun  off.  They  took  it  from  the  fort  and  carried 
it  to  a  considerable  distance  back  on  the  hill,  rigged  a  slow 
match  to  it,  and  then  got  out  of  the  way. 

When  the  explosion  finally  came,  the  air  was  filled  in  all  direc- 
tions, for  many  rods,  with  pieces  of  scrap-iron,  iron  bands,  and 
chunks  of  wood.  Had  it  ever  been  fired  in  the  fort  it  would 
have  killed  every  man  near  it. 

At  Virginia  City,  when  the  news  of  the  defeat  at  Pyramid 
Lake  came,  among  other  business  transacted  was  the  unanimous 
adoption  of  the  following  resolution  : 

"  Resolved,  That  during  the  next  sixty  days,  or  until  the  settlement  of  the 
present  Indian  difficulties,  no  claim  or  mining  ground  within  the  Territory, 
shall  be  subject  to  re-location,  or  liable  to  be  jumped  for  non-work." 
This  gave  many  persons  who  had  urgent  business  in  California 
an  opportunity  of  going  over  and  attending  to  it — doubtless 
many  started  soon  after  voting  upon  the  resolution. 

On  the  24th  of  May,  the  second  expedition  against  the  Indians 


SKIRMISHING.  123 


left  Virginia  City.  It  consisted  of  a  force  of  207  regular  soldiers 
and  549  volunteers,  all  armed  with  minie-muskets  and  well 
equipped  in  every  respect. 

The  regulars  had  with  them  two  twelve-pounder  mountain 
howitzers,  and  all  felt  in  starting  out  that  they  were  now  prepared 
to  give  the  Indians  a  good  substantial  battle,  in  case  they  should 
be  found  in  fighting  humor. 

About  noon,  June  2d.,  the  Piutes  were,  found  in  force  near  the 
old  battle-ground  at  Pyramid  Lake,  and  fire  was  opened  on  them. 

As  soon  as  the  firing  began,  the  plain,  the  ravines,  hillsides, 
sand-drifts,  and  mountain  tops  seemed  alive  with  Indians. 

The  battle  was  short  and  decisive.  The  Indians  were  severely 
punished.  They  lost  160  killed  and  had  a  great  many  wounded, 
while  the  whites  had  but  two  men  killed  and  only  three  or  four 
wounded.  Captain  E.  F.  Storey,  from  whom  Storey  county,  Ne- 
vada, takes  its  name,  was  shot  through  the  lungs,  and  died  in 
camp  in  the  evening.  Captain  Storey  was  taking  aim  at  an  Indian 
who  was  lying  behind  a  rock  at  the  time  he  received  his  death 
wound.  The  Indian  was  too  quick  for  him  and  got  the  first  shot. 
Storey's  men  instantly  riddled  the  fellow. 

This  expedition  brought  in  the  remains  of  Meredith  and 
Major  Ormsby.  The  bodies  of  many  of  the  dead  were  found  to 
have  been  horribly  mutilated.  About  the  place  where  the 
bodies  of  the  volunteers  were  found,  the  ground,  for  the  space  of 
two  hundred  yards,  was  beaten  as  solid  as  a  brickyard.  Ap- 
pearances indicated  that  the  Indians  had  taken  these  men 
alive,  and  had  held  a  big  dance  about  them  before  killing  them. 

After  this  battle  no  more  was  seen  of  the  Indians  in  a  long  time, 
and  there  has  been  no  trouble  with  them  since. 

In  September  of  that  year,  Winnemucca,  chief  of  the  tribe, 
visited  Fort  Churchill,  (a  fort  that  was  built  on  the  Carson 
River,  near  Williams'  Station,  after  the  last  battle  at  Pyramid 
Lake,)  accompanied  by  several  leading  men  of  his  tribe.  The 
old  fellow  said  that  he  not  only  desired  at  that  time,  but  at  all 
other  times  had  desired,  to  live  at  peace  with  the  whites.  The 
late  trouble  had  been  brought  about  by  a  few  Bannocks,  a  lot 
of  Shoshones  and  Pitt  River  Indians,  with  some  bad  Piutes. 
The  whites  had,  he  said,  charged  in  among  his  people  without 
seeking  an  interview  with  him  and  he  had  defended  himself  to 


APPEAL  TO  INDIAN  JUSTICE. 


the  best  of  his  ability.  He  hoped  that  the  peace  would  be 
permanent,  arid  desired  that  the  whites  and  Piutes  should  now 
become  firm  friends  and  allies. 

After  the  trouble  was  all  over  the  cause  of  it  was  ascertained. 
It  was  this.  —  In  the  absence  of  Williams,  proprietor  of  the 
station  where  the  massacre,  as  it  was  called,  occurred,  two  or 
three  men  left  in  charge  had  seized  upon  two  young  Piute 
women  and  had  treated  them  in  the  most  outrageous  manner, 
keeping  them  shut  up  in  an  outside  cellar  or  cave  for  a  day  or 
two. 

The  husband  of  one  of  the  women  coming  in  search  of  his  wife, 
heard  her  voice  calling  him  from  the  place  in  which  she  was 
hidden.  When  he  attempted  to  go  to  his  wife's  assistance  the 
men  at  the  station  beat  him  and  drove  him  away,  threaten- 
ing to  kill  him  if  he  did  not  leave  at  once. 

It  so  happened  that  the  women  who  had  been  outraged  were 
of  the  branch  of  the  Piute  tribe  living  at  Walker  Lake  who  had 
married  men  of  the  Bannock  tribe.  The  Indian  who  was  driven 
away  from  the  station  hastened  to  Walker  Lake  and  informed 
the  chief  man  there  of  the  outrage,  asking  him  to  send  a  band 
of  braves  to  punish  the  men  at  the  station.  But  the  sub-chief 
at  Walker  Lake*  would  send  no  men. 

The  wronged  Indian  then  went  to  Old  Winnemucca,  who  said 
he  would  send  no  men,  that  he  wanted  no  trouble  with  the  whites. 
His  advice  was  that  the  whites  be  informed  of  the  outrage,  and 
requested  to  punish  the  men  in  their  own  way,  in  accordance 
with  their  laws. 

Not  satisfied  with  this,  the  Bannock  went  to  young  Winne- 
mucca, the  war  chief.  Here  he  was  given  the  same  advice  that 
he  had  already  received  from  the  old  chief.  Thirsting  for 
vengeance,  the  man  then  hastened  to  his  own  country  and  his 
own  chief. 

When  the  chief  of  the  Bannocks  had  heard  the  man's  story  he 
at  once  gave  him  thirty  of  his  best  men,  and  told  him  to  go  and 
avenge  the  wrong  that  had  been  done  him.  He  went  and  the 
result  is  known. 

After  killing  the  men  and  burning  the  station,  the  Bannocks 
marked  their  return  trail  with  blood.  They  murdered  in  cold 
blood  several  small  parties  of  unarmed  prospectors.  The  bodies 


SAVAGES. 


AFTER   THE  SCALPS.  127 

of  these  were  not  discovered  until  after  the  last  fight  at  Pyramid 
Lake,  when  the  murders  were  charged  to  the  account  of  the  Piutes. 

Old  Winnemucca  was  not  at  the  first  fight  at  Pyramid  Lake, 
he  being  on  the  Humboldt  River  at  the  time,  but  young  Winne- 
mucca, the  war-chief,  was  there,  and  commanded. 

Before  the  fight  began  he  showed  a  white  flag  and  wished  to 
explain  'matters,  but  a  man  among  the  whites,  who  had  a  tele- 
scope rifle,  fired  and  killed  an  Indian  who  showed  himself  on  the 
rocks,  and  thus  precipitated  the  battle  which  ended  so  disas- 
trously for  the  whites. 

When  the  volunteers  returned  victorious  from  the  second  battle, 
they  were  the  heroes  of  the  hour,  until  some  of  them  began  to 
walk  into  stores  and  help  themselves  to  clothing. 

They  called  this  mode  of  obtaining  clothing  "  pressing  "  it, 
and  declared  that  it  was  a  military  necessity.  Some  of  the 
merchants  thought  they  were  "  pressing  "  it  a  little  too  strong 
when  they  began  to  help  themselves  to  fine  calf-skin  boots  and 
cassimere  pantaloons,  and  in  two  or.  three  instances  fights  ensued 
in  which  pistols  were  used,  one  of  the  merchants  and  two  or 
three  of  the  raiders  receiving  severe  wounds.  This  "pressing" 
was  done  by  a  "  hoodlum  "  class  that  came  over  the  Sierras 
among  the  volunteers.  These  were  the  men  who  took  Indian 
scalps  after  the  battle.  In  one  instance  one  of  them  found  an 
Indian  lying  with  his  back  broken  by  a  minie  musket-ball. 
Drawing  his  bowie-knife  he  proceeded  to  scalp  the  poor  devil 
alive.  As  he  was  sawing  away  at  the  tough  scalp,  the  Indian 
spat  in  his  face.  This  had  the  desired  effect — the  white  butcher 
drew  his  revolver  and  blew  out  the  Indian's  brains.  The  officers 
allowed  no  scalping,  yet  two  or  three  scalps  found  their  way  to 
Virginia  City.  ' 

"  Old  Gus,"  an  old  Dutchman,  marched  about  the  town,  from 
saloon  to  saloon,  with  an  Indian  bow  stuck  in  the  muzzle  of  his 
musket,  at  the  end  of  which  dangled  a  scalp.  This  gave  "  Old 
Gus"  all  the  whisky  he  wanted.  Wherever  he  came  it  was: 
"  Hurrah  for  Old  Gus,  he  got  his  Injun ! " 

The  captain  of  one  of  the  volunteer  companies  afterwards 
told  me  that  in  passing  over  the  ground  after  the  fight  he  chanced 
to  come  upon  Old  Gus,  behind  a  rock,  industriously  engaged  in 
skinning  the  head  of  a  dead  Indian,  meanwhile  calmly  smoking 
his  pipe. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

STATE   OF    SOCIETY. 

OWING  to  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  with  the  Piutes, 
and  to  the  fact  that  th'e  precious  metals  existed  in  solid 
quartz,  and,  in  most  instances,  far  beneath  the  surface, 
where  it  could  only  be  reached  by  means  of  deep  shafts  or 
long   and  expensive  tunnels,  many  men  who  came   to   the 
country  early  in  the  spring  of  1860,  left  in  disgust. 

;  Hundreds  of  prospectors  came  in  the  expectation  of  being 
able  to  find  rich  placer-mines,  or  at  least  large  deposits  of 
decomposed  quartz,  rich  in  gold,  which  they  might  wash  out 
with  rockers  and  sluices,  as  they  were  accustomed  to  wash  the 
auriferous  gravel  of  the  California  gold-fields.  Being  unable 
to  find  anything  of  this  kind,  except  the  ground  already  taken 
up  and  being  worked  at  Virginia  and  Gold  Hill,  these  men 
said  that-,x  though  rich,  the  mines  were  of  "no  extent,"  and 
made  haste  to  return  to  those  they  had  left  on  the  western 
slope  of  the  Sierras,  in  the  Golden  State. 

The  Indian  troubles  greatly  assisted  many  of  these  men  in 
a  speedy  arrival  at  the  conclusion  that  Washoe  was  no  good 
country  in  which  to  abide.  Few  of  those  who  first  rushed  to 
the  country  possessed  sufficient  capital  to  enable  them  to 
undertake  the  expensive  works  required  for  the  proper  open- 
ing and  development  of  the  claims  they  had  located,  and  not 
being  able  to  sell  a  "pig  in  a  poke,"  they  wanted  nothing 
more  to  do  with  silver  mining,  while  many  of  those  who  had 
the  means  lacked  faith  in  the  value  of  the  leads  discovered. 

The  business  of  working  silver  mines  was  then  new  to  our 
people,  and  at  first  they  depended  much  on  what  was  told 
them  by  the  Mexican  silver  miners  who  flocked  to  the  country. 

128 


ORGANIZA  TION  BEGUN.  129 

Mexicans  were  in  great  demand.  The  man  who  had  the  word 
of  a  Mexican  that  his  lead  or  his  location  was  "  bueno,"  felt 
that  his  fortune  was  made.  It  has  since  been  suspected  that 
many  of  these  Mexicans  were  but  "  vaqueros  "  from  the  "  cow 
counties "  of  California,  who  knew  no  more  of  silver  and 
silver  mining  than  a  Digger  Indian.  They  were  shrewd 
enough,  however,  to  keep  their  own  counsel,  and  any  man 
who  spoke  the  Spanish  language  was  supposed  to  have  mined 
all  his  days  in  the  richest  silver  mines  of  Mexico. 

There  were,  however,  undoubtedly  in  the  country  many  old 
and  skilful  Mexican  miners — skilful  after  the  fashion  of  min- 
ing in  Mexico — and  with  what  our  people  were  able  to  learn 
of  these  men,  and  what  they  soon  themselves  discovered,  it 
was  not  long  before  very  good  work  was  being  done,  both  in 
the  mines  and  in  the  works  erected  for  the  reduction  of  the 
ores.  In  the  reduction  of  ores  much  that  was  of  great  practical 
value  was  learned  from  the  scientific  Germans  who  flocked  to 
the  mines,  men  who  had  had  much  experience  in  the  silver 
mines  of  their  own  country,  both  in  mining  and  in  the  work- 
ing of  ores.  Although  rapid  progress  was  made  in  mining  and 
milling,  in  building  roads  and  making  substantial  improve- 
ments of  all  kinds,  Washoe  was  a  region  almost  destitute  of 
laws  of  any  kind,  and  all  carried  pistols  and  knives  at  their 
belts,  each  man  a  "  law  unto  himself." 

The  people  of  Western  Utah,  now  Nevada,  were  supposed 
to  be  living  under  Mormon  law,  but  the  laws  of  the  Saints 
were  distasteful  to  the  Gentiles  and  they  would  have  nothing 
to  do  with  them.  They  preferred  living  under  some  such 
"rules  and  regulations,"  as  we  have  seen  were  adopted  at 
Gold  Hill,  in  June,  1859,  or  to  settle  their  difficulties  in  a  fair 
fight.  Such  a  dislike  had  the  people  to  the  Mormon  laws 
that  they  early  began  to  agitate  the  matter  of  a  separation 
from  Utah  and  the  erection  of  a  new  Territory  out  of  its 
western  half.  Delegates  were  sent  to  Congress  to  urge  this, 
but  nothing  was  accomplished,  and  at  length  the  people  took 
the  matter  into  their  own  hands  and  determined  to  secede 
from  Utah. 

A  convention  was  called,  and  met  at  Genoa,  July  i8th.,  1859, 
when  steps  were  taken  for  the  formation  of  a  "Provisional 


130  IN  SEARCH  OF  THE  GOLD. 

Government."  A  "Declaration"  and  "Constitution"  were 
drafted,  submitted  to  a  vote  of  the  people,  and  adopted.  An 
election  for  Governor  and  members  of  the  Legislature  was  held, 
and,  December  i5th.,  1859,  this  Legislature  met  at  Genoa,  the 
capital,  organized,  received  the  "  first  annual  message  "  of  Gov- 
ernor Roop,  passed  a  number  of  resolutions,  appointed  a  few 
committees,  and  then  adjourned.  This  was  their  first  and  last 
adjournment;  they  never  met  again.  The  silver  mines  were 
discovered  and  Governor  Roop  and  all  hands  had  other  things 
to  think  of.  The  new  population  created  by  the  grand  rush 
to  the  mines  so  altered  the  whole  face  of  affairs  that  it  was 
considered  inexpedient  and  impolitic  to  proceed  further  in  the 
Provisional  Government  at  that  time.  The  discovery  of  silver 
and  the  rapid  settlement  of  the  country  soon  brought  the 
people  of  Western  Utah  to  the  notice  of  Congress:  the  Terri- 
tory of  Nevada  was  created,  and  in  July,  1861,  Governor  Nye 
and  a  number  of  the  Federal  appointees  arrived  in  the  country 
and  set  in  motion  the  wheels  of  a  government  that  was  in 
accord  with  the  feelings  and  traditions  of  the  people.  In  1860, 
however,  the  Mormon  laws  were  the  only  laws  left  to  the 
people;  the  Legislature  of  the  provisional  government  having 
adjourned  before  making  any  new  laws.  Having  an  abun- 
dance of  "rules  and  regulations,"  with  that  ready-reckoner 
the  revolver,  laws  were  not  much  missed  for  a  time;  besides, 
all  were  too  eagerly  engaged  in  the  pursuit  of  wealth  in  the 
shape  of  mines  of  silver  and  gold  to  give  much  serious  atten- 
tion to  matters  politicalA 

Soon  after  the  last  l5attle  at  Pyramid  Lake,  prospecting 
parties  again  began  to  scout  out  into  the  wild  and  then 
unknown  and  unexplored  regions  lying  to  the  eastward  and 
southward  of  the  Comstock  range.  Stories  of  wonderful  dis- 
coveries of  all  kinds  in  these  regions  kept  the  people  in  the 
several  mining  towns  and  settlements  in  a  constant  state  of 
excitement.  Reports  of  these  new  discoveries,  greatly  exag- 
gerated in  most  instances,  reaching  California,  a  return  tide 
of  miners  from  that  State  soon  set  in.  The  marvellous 
richness  of  the  Ophir  and  other  Comstock  mines  continuing, 
and  constantly  increasing,  capitalists  came  flocking  back  to 
Virginia  and  Gold  Hill,  and  it  was  not  long  before  all 


"FIGHTING  SAM  BROWN." 


enterprises  were  in  a  condition  as  flourishing  as  before  the 
Indian  troubles  began.  With  the  miners  and  capitalists  also 
came  gamblers  of  both  high  and  low  degree,  roughs,  robbers, 
thieves,  and  adventurers  of  all  kinds,  colors,  and  nationalities. 
Not  a  few  noted  and  well-known  desperadoes  arrived  and 
walked  the  streets  and  presided  in  the  saloons  as  "chiefs."  It 
was  the  ambition  of  men  of  this  class  to  be  considered  as  being 
"chief"  in  whatever  town  they  might  conclude  to  infest. 
Early  in  the  spring  of  1860,  Sam  Brown,  known  all  over  the  j 
Pacific  Coast  as  "Fighting  Sam  Brown,"  arrived  at  Virginia. 
He  was  a  big  chief,  and  when  he  walked  into  a  saloon,  a  side 
at  a  time,  with  his  big  Spanish  spurs  clanking  along  the  floor, 
and  his  six-shooter  flapping  under  his  coat-tails,  the  little 
"  chiefs  "  hunted  their  holes  and  talked  small  on  back  seats. 

In  order  to  signalize  his  arrival  and  let  it  be  known  that  he 
was  no  "  King  Log,"  Sam  Brown  committed  a  murder  soon 
after  reaching  Virginia.  He  picked  a  quarrel  one  night  in  a- 
saloon  with  a  man  who  was  so  drunk  that  he  did  not  know 
what  he  was  saying,  ripped  him  up  with  his  bowie-knife, 
killing  him  instantly;  then,  wiping  his  knife  on  the  leg  of  his 
pantaloons,  walked  across  the  saloon,  lay  down  on  a  bench 
and  went  to  sleep.  After  this,  where  was  the  chief  who  dared 
say  that  Sam  Brown  was  not  the  big  chief?  Sam  had  then 
killed  about  fifteen  men,  doubtless  much  in  the  same  way  as 
he  killed  the  last  man.  Not  long  was  Sam  chief  in  Washoe. 
He  took  a  ride  down  into  Carson  Valley,  and  stopping  at 
Van  Sickle's  Station,  near  Genoa,  took  a  shot  or  two  at  the 
barkeeper,  then  mounted  his  horse  and  rode  away. 

Van  Sickles  was  soon  informed  of  what  had  occurred,  and 
mounting  a  fast  horse,  with  a  heavily-loaded  double-barrelled 
shotgun  in  his  hand,  started  in  pursuit. 

He  overtook  the  desperado  before  he  reached  Genoa. 

Sam  no  doubt  felt  that  his  hour  had  come,  for  an  enraged 
ranchman  on  his  track  meant  business,  as  he  well  knew  —  it 
was  very  different  from  having  to  do  with  a  "chief."  Sam 
turned  in  his  saddle  and  began  firing,  as  Van  Sickles  ap- 
proached ;  but  the  ranchman  was  uninjured,  and  raising  his 
shotgun  riddled  the  great  fighter  with  buckshot,  tumbling  him 
dead  from  his  horse,  just  in  the  edge  of  the  town  of  Genoa. 
8 


132  THE  KNIFE  AND  THE  PISTOL. 

Thus  died  "  Fighting  Sam  Brown  " — died  with  his  "  boots  on ; " 
an  end  which  all  "  chiefs  "  dread. 

After  the  death  of  Sam  Brown,  numerous  chiefs  rose  up  and 
there  were  many  bloody  fights  in  regard  to  the  succession. 
Also,  there  were  many  bloody  fights  in  which  the  chieftain- 
ship was  not  the  mooted  question.  Having  knives  and  pistols 
ever  at  hand,  men  of  all  classes  too  frequently  used  them. 
The  reports  of  pistols  were  heard  almost  nightly,  and  in  pass- 
ing along  the  streets  frequent  stampedes  from  the  gambling- 
houses  were  to  be  seen.  As  innocent  parties  were  as  likely 
to  be  killed  as  the  persons  engaged  in  the  shooting,  those  who 
were  not  directly  interested  in  a  fight  always  withdrew  when 
pistols  were  drawn  in  a  saloon  or  gambling-house.  At  such 
times  they  came  out  into  the  street  much  as  a  flock  of  sheep 
would  go  through  a  gap  in  a  fence  with  a  dog  at  their  heels. 

The  street  gained  they  turned  and  stood  peeping  back.  If 
the  war  did  not  presently  begin  they  gradually  ventured  to 
return  and  resume  their  interrupted  occupations  and  pleasures, 
not  expecting  an  apology  from  the  gentlemen  who  had  incon- 
venienced them. 

Thus  were  those  not  directly  engaged  in  mining,  or  other 
productive  industry  worrying  along. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

EARLY   COMSTOCK   MINING   OPERATIONS. 

IN  the  mines  rapid  advances  were  soon  made,  both  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  various  claims  and  in  the  machinery  and 
appliances  used.     Whereas,  the  first  shafts  sunk  were  mere 
round  holes,  precisely  similar  in  every  respect  to  an  ordinary 
well,  now  began  to  be  seen  well-timbered  square  shafts  of  two  or 
more  compartments;  the  old    hand-windlasses    gave   place  to 
horse-whims  and  to  steam  hoisting  machinery,  and  large  and  sub- 
stantially constructed  tunnels   took  the  place  of  the  "  coyote 
holes  "  which  were  at  first  run  into  the  hills. 

The  first  steam  hoisting  and  pumping  machinery  seen  on  the 
Comstock  lead  was  put  in  at  the  Ophir  mine,  in  1860.  The 
machinery  was  driven  by  a  fifteen-horse-power  donkey-engine. 
The  mine  was  at  that  time  being  worked  through  an  incline  (an 
inclined  shaft)  which  followed  the  dip  of  the  vein.  A  track  was 
laid  down  in  this  incline  and  a  car  was  lowered  and  hoisted 
through  it  by  steam-power.  The  pump  then  used  had  a  pipe 
but  four  inches  in  diameter,  and  it  was  hard  work  to  keep  the 
mine  drained,  even  at  the  slight  depth  then  attained.  At  this  time 
the  dip  of  the  vein  was  to  the  west,  and  all  supposed  that  that 
was  the  true  dip  of  the  Comstock  lode :  on  this  account  loca- 
tions lying  to  the  west  of  the  Comstock  were  considered  to  be 
much  more  valuable,  and  were  much  more  sought  for  than  those 
lying  to  the  east.  The  westward  dip  of  the  great  lode 
would  carry  it  directly  into  and  under  Mount  Davidson,  on  the 
eastern  slope  of  which,  and  1500  feet  below  its  summit,  the 
croppings  of  the  vein  made  their  appearance ;  all,  therefore,  were 
desirous  of  obtaining  mining  ground  on  the  side  of  Mount  David- 

133 


134:         IN  THE  HEART  OF  THE  BONANZA. 

son  and  the  mountains  flanking  it  north  and  south.  But  when 
the  depth  of  300  feet  had  been  attained  in  the  Ophir  mine,  the 
lead  began  to  straighten  up  and  soon  assumed  its  true  dip  to 
the  east,  at  an  angle  of  about  forty-five  degrees,  a  dip  it  has 
maintained  ever  since,  and  not  only  at  that  particular  point,  but 
throughout  its  entire  length  of  nearly  three  miles. 

When  the  true  dip  of  the  vein  had  been  ascertained,  it  was  then 
seen  that  its  apparent  dip  to  the  west  was  owing  to  the  pressure 
of  the  superincumbent  rock  and  earth,  on  the  steep  side  of  the 
mountain,  having  pressed  down  the  upper  part  and  bent  it  over 
to  the  east.  When  those  who  had  located  claims  on  the  side  of 
Mount  Davidson,  and  adjacent  mountains,  saw  the  Comstock 
lead  thus  .turning  tail  and  leaving  them,  they  stood  aghast. 
Those  who  had  located  to  the  eastward  and  had  mourned  because 
they  could  do  no  better,  were  now  happy  men — the  Comstock 
was  making  toward  them. 

In  December,  1860,  the  Ophir  folks  had  attained  a  depth  of 
but  180  feet  in  their  mine.  They  were  working  down  in  the  heart 
of  the  bonanza,  or  rich  ore-body,  and  at  that  depth  the  breadth 
of  ore  was  forty-five  feet.  No  such  great  width  of  ore  had  ever 
before  been  seen,  and  the  miners  were  at  their  wits'  end  to  know 
how  to  work  it  and  keep  up  the  superincumbent  ground — how 
to  support  such  a  great  width  of  ground  with  timbers,  was  the 
question.  The  ordinary  plan  of  using  posts  and  caps  would  not 
do,  as  posts  of  sufficient  length  could  not  be  obtained,  and,  even 
though  they  could  be  had,  would  be  inadequate  to  the  support 
of  the  great  weight  and  pressure  that  would  be  brought  to  bear 
upon  them.  In  this  emergency  the  company  sent  to  California 
for  Mr.  Philip  Deidesheimer,  a  gentleman  who  had  had  much 
practical  experience  both  in  the  mines  of  Germany  and  those 
of  the  Pacific  coast. 

After  Mr.  Deidesheimer  arrived  and  was  placed  in  charge  of 
the  mine  as  superintendent,  he  worked  upon  the  problem  before 
him  for  three  weeks  before  he  arrived  at  a  satisfactory  solution. 
He  then  hit  upon  the  plan  of  timbering  in  "square  sets  "  which 
is  still  in  use  in  all  the  mines  on  the  Comstock,  and  without 
which  they  could  not  be  worked.  The  plan  was  to  frame  timbers 
and  put  them  together  in  the  shape  of  cribs,  four  by  five  or  six 
feet  in  size,  piling  these  cribs  one  upon  another — but  all  neatly 


INSIDE  THE  MINE.  135 


framed  together — to  any  desired  height.  Thus  was  the  ground 
supported  and  braced  up  in  all  directions.  Where  the  vein  was 
of  great  width,  a  certain  number  of  these  cribs  could  be  filled 
in  with  waste  rock,  forming  pillars  of  stone  reaching  up  to  the 
wall  of  rock  to  be  supported — up  to  the  roof  of  the  mine. 

Previous  to  the  invention  by  Mr.  Deidesheimer  of  the  system 
of  timbering  by  means  of  "  square  sets,"  the  only  supports  used 
in  the  mines  were  round  logs  cut  on  the  surrounding  hills. 
These  logs  were  from  sixteen  to  thirty-five  feet  in  length. 
When  of  the  latter  length  they  were  manufactured,  that  is,  were 
made  of  two  logs  spliced  and  held  together  by  means  of  iron 
bolts  and  bands.  Owing  to  the  stunted  character  of  the  pines  and 
cedars  found  in  the  neighborhood  it  was  almost  impossible  to  pro- 
cure a  log  more  than  twenty  feet  in  length.  After  setting  up  two 
of  these  long  logs,  a  log  about  eighteen  feet  long  was  placed  upon 
them  as  a  cap.  These  posts  and  caps  were  placed  as  close 
together  as  they  could  be  made  to  stand,  but  then  would  not  hold 
up  the  ground  when  it  began  to  slack  and  swell  from  exposure 
to  the  air. 

Besides  this  difficulty  there  was  no  safe  way  of  working  either 
above  or  below  these  sets,  in  the  vein.  To  take  out  ore,  either 
under  or  over  the  timbers,  loosened  them  and  caused  a  disastrous 
cave.  Many  accidents  happened  and  many  men  lost  their  lives 
while  this  method  of  timbering  was  practiced,  but  no  lives  have 
ever  been  lost  in  timbering  by  the  square-set  or  Deidesheimer 
plan.  In  the  mines  at  Gold  Hill  was  where  the  timbers  thirty- 
five  feet  in  length  were  used,  and  there  was  where  the  greatest 
number  of  accidents  happened ;  but  in  the  Ophir  mine,  timbers 
sixteen  feet  long  had  been  used. 

When  the  miners  of  Gold  Hill  heard  of  the  new  mode  of  timber- 
ing practiced  in  the  Ophir  mine,  they  went  up  to  Virginia  to  see 
it,  and  found  it  was  just  what  was  required.  Mr.  Deidesheimer 
sent  some  of  his  carpenters  down  to  Gold  Hill  to  show  the 
workmen  there  how  to  frame  the  new  timbers,  and  how  to. set 
them  up.  In  1861  this  style  of  timbering  was  adopted  along 
the  whole  line  of  the  Comstock  and  has  been  in  use  ever  since. 
The  Ophir  was  probably  the  first  mine  in  any  part  of  the  world 
where  such  a  system  of  timbering  became  a  necessity,  as  no  ore- 
body  of  such  great  width  had  ever  before  been  found.  Nothing 


136  EXTRA  ORDINAR  Y  EXPERIMENTS. 

seen  in  the  Comstock  mines  more  surprises  and  pleases  the 
mining  men  of  Europe  than  this  mode  of  timbering.  It  is  a 
thing  none  of  them  has  ever  before  seen  or  thought  of,  and  its 
utility  is  so  strikingly  obvious  that  they  can  hardly  find  words 
in  which  to  adequately  express  their  great  admiration  of  it. 

In  1861,  Mr.  Deidesheimer  prevailed  upon  the  Ophir  Company 
to  put  up  a  forty-five  horse-power  engine,  an  eight-inch  pump 
and  improved  hoisting  machinery  for  the  incline  of  the  mine. 
The  company  thought  this  a  fearfully  extravagant  move,  and 
were  almost  frightened  out  of  their  wits  when  this  "  tremendous  " 
machinery  was  first  mentioned.  Now  there  is  hardly  anything 
in  the  shape  of  a  mine  anywhere  along  the  Comstock  range  on 
which  there  is  not  in  operation  more  powerful  and  costly 
machinery. 

At  the  depth  of  180  feet,  at  what  was  called  the  third  gallery, 
the  width  of  the  ore  was,  as  I  have  said,  45  feet ;  at  the  fourth 
gallery  it  became  66  feet  in  width,  and  the  miners  were  delighted 
to  find  that  the  new  timbers  supported  the  ground  in  the  most 
perfect  manner.  At  this  time  the  ore  extracted  from  this  first 
bonanza  was  assorted  as  it  was  extracted.  That  which  would 
average  $1,000  per  ton  was  sacked  up  and  shipped  to  England 
for  reduction,  while  the  remainder  was  piled  up  as  second  and 
third-class  ore,  to  await  the  erection  of  proper  mills  for  working 
it  at  home.  At  the  Mexican  and  other  mines  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, about  the  same  disposition  was  at  this  time  being  made  of 
the  ores  taken  out,  while  at  Gold  Hill  they  had  not  yet  attained 
a  sufficient  depth  to  reach  the  silver,  and  were  working  their 
ores  for  gold  alone ;  though  much  silver  was  obtained  with  the 
gold. 

The  first  mill  started  up  for  the  reduction  of  silver  ores  was 
that  known  as  the  "  Pioneer,"  located  at  the  Devil's  Gate,  just 
where  the  warlike  "  Silverites  "  built  their  fort  at  the  time  of  the 
Indian  troubles.  Other  mills  started  up  within  a  few  days  after 
this  first  one  went  into  operation  and  soon  there  were  many  at 
work  in  all  directions.  The  early  millmen  knew  but  little  about 
working  silver  ores,  and  all  manner  of  experiments  were  tried 
with  a  view  to  the  thorough  amalgamation  of  the  silver  contained 
in  the  rock  that  was  crushed.  This,  in  the  opinion  of  most 
superintendents  of  mills,  was  to  be  accomplished  by  the  use  of 


TIMBERING  OF  A  MINE. 


PROCESS-PEDDLERS"  AND  THEIR  DEVICE*. 


chemicals.  A  more  promiscuous  collection  of  strange  drugs 
and  vegetable  decoctions  never  before  was  used  for  any  purpose. 
The  amalgamating  pans  in  the  mills  surpassed  the  caldron  of 
Macbeth's  witches  in  the  variety  and  villainousness  of  their 
contents.  Not  content  with  blue-stone  (sulphate  of  copper), 
salt,  and  one  or  two  other  simple  articles  of  known  efficacy, 
they  poured  into  their  pans  all  manner  of  acids;  dumped  in 
potash,  borax,  saltpetre,  alum,  and  all  else  that  could  be  found 
at  the  drug-stores,  then  went  to  the  hills  and  started  in  on  the 
vegetable  kingdom.  They  peeled  bark  off  the  cedar-trees, 
boiled  it  down  till  they  had  obtained  a  strong  tea,  and  then 
poured  it  into  the  pans  where  it  would  have  an  opportunity  of 
attacking  the  silver  stubbornly  remaining  in  the  rocky  parts  of 
the  ore.  The  native  sage-brush,  which  everywhere  covered  the 
hills,  being  the  bitterest,  most  unsavory,  and  nauseating  shrub 
to  be  found  in  .any  part  of  the  world,  it  was  not  long  before  a 
genius  in  charge  of  a  mill  conceived  the  idea  of  making  a  tea  of 
this  and  putting  it  into  his  pans.  Soon,  the  wonders  performed 
by  the  "  sage-brush  process,"  as  it  was  called,  were  being  heralded 
through  the  land.  The  superintendent  of  every  mill  had  his 
secret  process  of  working  the  silver  ore.  Often,  when  it  was 
supposed  that  one  of  the  superintendents  had  made  a  grand  dis- 
covery, the  workmen  of  the  mill  were  bribed  to  make  known  the 
secret.  To  guard  as  much  as  possible  against  this,  the  superin- 
tendent generally  had  a  private  room  in  which  he  made  his  vile 
compounds.  "  Process-peddlers,"  with  little  vials  of  chemicals 
in  their  vest  pockets,  went  from  mill  to  mill  to  show  what  they 
could  do  and  would  do,  provided  they  received  from  $5,000  to 
$20,000  for  their  secret.  The  object  with  many  inventors  of 
"  processes  "  appeared  to  be  to  physic  the  silver  out  of  the  rock, 
or  at  least  to  make  it  so  sick  that  it  would  be  obliged  to  loose  its 
hold  upon  its  matrix  and  come  out  and  be  caught  by  the  quick- 
silver lying  in  wait  for  it  in  the  bottom  of  the  pans.  Had  it  been 
in  the  dark  ages  that  these  experiments  were  in  progress,  the 
efficacy  of  the  blood  of  human  victims  would  doubtless  have 
been  tried;  they  would  occasionally  have  hoisted  an  honest 
miner  up  from  the  subterranean  depths  and  cut  his  throat  over  a 
pan.  The  "process-peddlers  "  finally  became  a  worse  nuisance 
than  evei  lightning-rod  men  have  been  —  the  limited  space  of 


THE  VALUE  OF  "TAILINGS! 


country  to  which  they  were  confined  being  considered — and  the 
millmen  became  disgusted  with  all  the  patent  processes — their 
own  as  well  as  those  of  others — and  soon  little,  save  salt  and 
blue-stone, was  used  in  the  pans.  It  was  found  that  thorough 
grinding  and  careful  working  of  the  ore  was.  what  was  required. 
During  the  first  few  years  that  they  were  experimenting  on 
the  Comstock  ores,  in  the  many  new  and  inefficient  mills,  millions 
of  dollars  in  silver  and  gold  were  lost  in  the  tailings ;  that  is,  in 
the  pulverized  ore  that  ran  away  from  the  mills  after  it  had  been 
operated  upon  in  the  pans,  settlers,  and  other  apparatus  for  the 
saving  and  amalgamation  of  silver  by  the  wet-process.  These 
tailings  flowed  from  the  mills  into  the  canons  and  were  swept 
down  into  the  Carson  River,  thence  down  to  the  "  sink  "  or  lake 
into  which  the  river  empties.  These  millions  still  lie  in  the  bed 
of  the  Carson  River  and  in  the  bottom  of  the  sink.  Had  any 
man  thought  of  saving  these  tailings  in  the  early.days  of  milling, 
by  putting  a  flume  into  Gold  Canon  and  running  them  to  some 
flat  or  valley  where  they  could  have  been  dumped  in  a  great 
heap,  all  that  is  now  lost  would  have  been  saved,  and  the  origi- 
nator of  the  enterprise  would  have  made  half  a  dozen  big  for- 
tunes. The  Mexicans  knew  the  value  of  these  tailings  and 
worked  them,  but  they  always  do  things  on  such  a  small  scale 
that  what  they  obtained  was  a  mere  trifle,  and  nobody  thought  of 
collecting  the  whole  of  the  tailings  running  to  waste  in  the 
canons  and  saving  them  in  bulk ;  besides,  the  price  of  milling  at 
that  time  was  so  high — about  $50  per  ton — that  the  general  im- 
pression was  that  it  would  not  pay  to  save  the  whole  mass  of 
tailings. 

Two  Mexicans  were  at  work  all  one  summer  in  Gold  Canon, 
at  Silver  City,  at  concentrating  and  working  the  tailings  that 
were  flowing  down  the  stream,  a  mere  rill  of  muddy  water. 
They  caught  the  tailings  in  a  small  ^  reservoir,  from  which  they 
took  them  and  spread  them  on  a  table  that  stood  at  an  inclina- 
tion of  about  thirty  degrees.  They  then  threw  water  over  the 
tailings  with  a  small  dipper,  beginning  at  the  top  of  the  table 
and  gradually  working  downward  until  they  reached  the  bottom, 
at  which  point,  where  the  end  of  the  table  rested  on  the  ground, 
would  be  found  some  pounds  of  sulphuret  of  silver,  with  some 
particles  of  amalgam  and  quicksilver  that  had  escaped  from  the 


NEA  T  WAY  OF  MAKING  RINGS. 


mills.  This  they  placed  upon  a  platform  of  boards,  called  a 
"patio"  and  when  several  hundred  pounds  had  been  saved,  sul- 
phate of  copper,  salts,  and  quicksilver,  in  proper  proportions,  were 
added  to  the  mass  of  sulphuret  and  tailings,  and  the  whole  was 
mixed  up  as  builders  mix  mortar.  When  thoroughly  mixed,  the 
whole  mass  was  drawn  together  into  a  round  heap,  and  allowed 
to  stand  and  sweat  and  digest  in  that  shape  for  a  certain  number 
of  hours.  It  was  then  spread  out  and  worked  over,  giving  it  the 
benefit  of  the  air  for  a  time,  when  it  was  again  heaped  up  to  di- 
gest. This  being  several  times  repeated,  the  operation  .  was 
complete,  and  the  silver,  amalgamated  with  quicksilver,  was 
washed  out  in  a  pan  or  rocker.  This  is  the  famous  Mexican 
''patio  '  process  on  a  small  scale.  At  the  mines  in  Mexico  they 
have  large,  circular  patios,  paved  with  stone  or  tamped  with 
tough  clay,  in  which  horses  are  driven  about  to  tread  and 
knead  the  pulverized  and  moistened  ore.  It  is,  however,  the 
same  thing  in  effect  as  the  process  described  above.  The  two 
Mexicans  mentioned  worked  all  summer,  and  the  supposition  was 
that  they  were  about  "making  grub,"  but  after  they  left,  the 
butcher  of  whom  they  obtained  their  meat  stated  that  they  took 
away  with  them  about  $3,000  each  ;  that  they  were  in  the  habit 
of  bringing  their  bullion  to  his  shop  every  Saturday  night  to 
weigh  it,  therefore  he  knew  what  they  had  been  doing  all  the 
time,  but  had  promised  to  keep  their  secret,  as  they  were  afraid 
of  being  driven  away  before  winter  if  it  were  known  that  they 
were  making  money. 

After  freshets  in  the  canon  the  miners  used  to  go  out  and  col- 
lect amalgam  by  digging  it  out  of  the  crevices  in  the  rocks  with 
knives,  or  scooping  it  out  with  spoons.  Having  retorted  this, 
they  would  take  it  to  a  blacksmith's  forge,  and  make  rings  out  of  it 
by  melting  it  and  pouring  it  into  a  mould  cut  in  an  adobe  or 
piece  of  brick.  In  this  way  they  made  rings  that  would  weigh 
an  ounce  or  more,  and  of  nights,  when  going  into  town  to  have  a 
good  lime  with  the  "  boys,"  would  slip  three  or  four  of  these 
rings  upon  the  fingers  of  their  right  hands,  for  use  in  lieu  of 
brass  knuckles. 

Notwithstanding  all  these  evidences  of  the  richness  of  tailings 
it  was  long  before  men  began  to  work  them  in  any  regular  or 
scientific  manner.  At  length,  however,  shallow  flumes  were  put 


142 


WASTE  OF  GOLD  AND  SILVER. 


up  on  the  canons  in  which  the  tailings  were  concentrated  and 
the  sulphurets  caught  on  strips  of  coarse  blanketing  placed  in  the 
bottom  of  the  sluices,  and,  finally,  huge  reservoirs  were  construct- 
ed in  which  the  whole  of  the  tailings  were  caught  and  saved  in 
bulk,  it  being  found  that  they  could  be  worked  at  an  expense 
not  exceeding  four  or  five  dollars  per  ton.  With  the  tailings 
there  is  always  caught  more  or  less  amalgam  and  quicksilver. 
It  appears  to  be  impossible  to  save  all  the  gold  and  silver  con- 
tained in  ore  by  any  one  process;  indeed,  after  it  has  been 
worked  over  several  times,  and  in  several  different  ways,  the 
tailings  that  finally  escape  still  contain  gold,  silver,  and  quick- 
silver, but  a  much  larger  per  cent  is  at  present  saved  than  for- 
merly. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

LOSS  OF   THE   PRECIOUS   METALS. 

THE  divisibility  of  quicksilver,  and  also  of  silver  and 
gold,  as  shown  by  the  milling  operations  conducted  in 
Nevada,  is  incomprehensibly  great,  and  would  seem  to 
be  almost  unlimited ;  particularly  in  the  case  of  the  metal  first 
named.  A  globule  of  quicksilver  may  be  divided  until  no 
longer  visible  to  the  naked  eye,  and,  indeed,  until  scarcely 
visible  under  a  microscope,  and  yet  even  the  most  minute 
subdivision  shall  be  found  to  contain  both  gold  and  silver. 
How  infinitesimally  small,  then,'  must  be  the  particles  of  silver 
and  gold  contained  in  one  of  these  almost  invisible  and 
immeasurable  globules  of  mercury! 

In  regard  to  the  remarkable  divisibility  of  the  precious 
metals,  the  following  instance  may  be  given  in  illustration : 

The  superintendent  of  a  water  mill  on  the  Carson  River, 
when  working  for  a  considerable  length  of  time  an  ore  in 
which  gold  largely  predominated,  used  every  precaution  to 
guard  against  loss.  In  addition  to  the  usual  settling-tanks,  he 
caused  to  be  dug  in  the  ground  a  number  of  large  pits,  into 
which  the  waste  water  flowed  after  leaving  the  tanks. 

After  leaving  these  pits,  the  water  passed  off  in  a  small 
flume,  and  to  the  eye  appeared  as  clear  as  the  water  of  the 
purest  mountain  stream.  For  the  sake  of  experiment,  the 
superintendent  coated  a  copper  bowl  with  quicksilver,  and 
placed  it  in  such  a  position  that  the  water  from  the  .flume 
should  fall  into  it.  He  also  placed  in  the  flume,  below  the 
bowl,  some  copper  riffles,  properly  coated  with  quicksilver. 
Although  the  water  passing  through  the  flume  appeared  to  be 

143 


144:  FLOATING  TREASURE. 

perfectly  clear,  yet  at  the  end  of  three  months  the  bowl  and 
riffles  were  cleaned  up  and  over  $100  in  amalgam  was  obtained. 

This  mill  is  driven  by  water  taken  from  the  Carson  River, 
and  carried  for  a  considerable  distance  through  a  large  wooden 
flume.  At  one  time  it  became  necessary  to  shut  off  the  water, 
for  the  purpose  of  repairing  this  flume.  In  making  the  repairs  it 
was  found  that  in  many  places  that  the  heads  of  the  nails  driven 
into  the  bottom  of  the  flume  were  thickly  coated  with  amal- 
gam. Within  a  distance  of  about  three  rods  along  the  flume,  the 
workmen  engaged  in  making  repairs  collected  over  an  ounce 
of  amalgam.  The  water  flowing  through  the  flume  was  taken 
from  the  river,  below  a  number  of  large  mills,  and,  though  far 
from  being  clear,  would  never  have  been  suspected  to  contain 
floating  quicksilver  in  such  quantity  as  to  form  collections  of 
amalgam  on  the  heads  of  iron  nails.  In  order  that  quicksilver 
may  amalgamate  with  iron,  the  iron  must  be  scratched  or 
polished  while  immersed  in  the  quicksilver;  it  will  therefore 
be  seen  that  much  amalgam  must  have  passed  by  before  the 
accidental  occurrence  of  the  conditions  under  which  the 
collection  of  amalgam  on  the  heads  of  the  nails  could  begin. 
As  a  beginning,  a  passing  pebble  must  have  pricked  through 
a  globule  of  quicksilver  just  at  the  moment  when  it  was  roll- 
ing over  the  head  of  a  nail.  By  a  succession  of  these  acci- 
dental collisons  the  head  was  finally  covered  with  quicksilver, 
and  the  collection  of  amalgam  then  went  on  rapidly. 

As  further  evidence  that  quicksilver  in  considerable  quanti- 
ties floats  in  the  water  of  flumes  and  streams,  below  reduction- 
works,  in  a  state  of  invisible  division,  and  yet  carries  with  it 
the  precious  metals,  I  may  give  an  additional  instance.  At 
a  mill  on  the  Carson  River  one  of  the  workmen  required  a 
piece  of  copper.  Remembering  to  have  seen  some  old  sheets 
of  that  metal  lying  near  the  waste-gate  of  the  flume,  through 
which  water  was  brought  to  the  wheel  of  the  mill,  he  went  to 
the  spot  and  hauled  them  out  of  a  puddle  in  which  they  were 
lying.  Much  to  his  surprise  he  found  the  sheets  heavily 
coated  with  amalgam  and  so  eaten  up  by  quicksilver  that 
they  were  as  thin  as  writing  paper.  The  water  pouring  out 
through  the  waste-gate  had  a  fall  of  about  fifteen  feet.  It  did 
not  fall  directly  upon  the  copper  plates,  but  in  such  a  way 


WHERE   THE  QUICKSILVER  GOES.  145 

as  to  keep  them  constantly  splashed  and  wet.  The  plates  had 
lain  where  they  were  found  four  or  five  years.  Over  a  pound 
of  amalgam  was  scraped  off  them.  It  would  seem  that  in 
these  striking  instances  of  the  unsuspected  floating  away  of 
the  precious  metals  there  is  for  millmen  food  for  reflection, 
and  for  inventors  a  field  of  profit  and  distinction. 

Just  what  becomes  of  all  the  quicksilver  used  in  the  reduc- 
tion-works of  Nevada  is  a  question  which  has  never  yet  been 
fully  and  satisfactorily  answered.  Much  floats  away  with  the 
water  flowing  from  the  mills  ;  but  it  cannot  be  that  the  whole 
of  the  immense  quantities  used  is  lost  in  that  way.  Quick- 
silver in  great  quantities  is  constantly  being  taken  into  the 
State,  and  not  an  ounce  is  ever  returned.  When  it  has  been 
used  in  the  amalgamation  of  a  batch  of  ore,  it  is  taken  to 
the  amalgamating-pans,  and  is  used  over  and  over  again 
until  it  has  disappeared.  Whether  it  may  float  away  with  the 
water  used  in  amalgamating,  or  is  lost  by  evaporation  while 
in  the  hot-bath  of  the  steam-heated  pans,  there  must  be  a  vast 
amount  of  the  metal  collecting  somewhere,  as  it  is  a  metal 
not  easily  destroyed.  In  case  it  is  lost  by  evaporation  it  must 
condense  and  fall  to  the  ground  somewhere  near  the  works  in 
which  it  is  used,  and  if  it  floats  away  in  the  water  it  must 
eventually  find  a  resting  place  on  the  bottom  of  the  stream  in 
which  it  is  carried  away. 

It  is  an  axiom  among  millmen  that  "  wherever  quicksilver 
is  lost,  silver  is  lost ; "  therefore  there  must  be  a  large  amount 
of  silver  lost,  as  we  shall  presently  see.  The  amount  of 
quicksilver  used  by  mills  working  the  Comstock  ores  alone 
averages  800  flasks,  of  76 J  pounds  each;  or  61,200  pounds  per 
month.  This  in  one  year  would  amount  to  734,400  pounds  of 
quicksilver  that  go  somewhere,  and  counting  backwards  for 
ten  years  shows  7,344,000  pounds  that  have  gone  somewhere — 
either  up  the  flue  or  down  the  flume. 

The  quantity  of  quicksilver  distributed  monthly  among  the 
mills  shows  just  how  much  is  lost  per  month.  None  is  sold 
or  sent  out  of  the  country  in  or  with  the  bullion ;  therefore,  if 
there  were  no  loss,  the  mills  would  never  want  any  more 
quicksilver  than  enough  to  give  them  their  first  start,  as  the 
same  lot  could  be  used  over  and  over  again,  ad  tnfimtum. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE    SOCIAL    ASPECT   OF   THE   TERRITORY. 

IN  1862-3,  with  mills  running  in  all  directions  and  mines 
open  and  hoisting  ore  for  a  distance  of  a  mile  or  more  along 
the  Comstock,  Virginia  City  was  a  lively  place.     Where 
but  two  or  three  years  before  was  nothing  but  a  rocky  slope 
covered  with  sage-brush  and  scrub  cedar,  were  now  to  be  seen 
large  fire-proof  brick  and  stone  buildings,  and  streets  crowded 
with  men  and  teams. 

As  all  goods  were  at  that  time  brought  across  the  mountains 
by  teams,  and  as  hundreds  of  teams  were  required  to  haul  ore 
from  the  mines  to  the  mills,  and  to  bring  wood  and  timber 
from  the  hills  and  mountains,  as  well  as  to  do  all  kinds  of 
local  freighting,  there  often  occurred  most  vexatious  block- 
ades in  the  streets.  A  jam  of  teams  would  take  place,  owing 
to  some  accident  or  to  mismanagement  on  the  part  of  some 
teamster,  and  teams  rolling  in  from  each  side,  there  would 
soon  be  seen  a  regular  blockade.  These  blockades  were  of 
daily  occurrence  and  sometimes  lasted  for  hours.  Teamsters 
waiting  for  the  road  to  open  grew  hungry,  and  producing 
their  lunch-pails  sat  on  their  wagons  and  ate  dinner,  still 
waiting  patiently  for  the  blockade  to  be  broken.  Half  a  dozen 
stage-lines  were  running  into  the  place,  and  these  arrived 
loaded  down  with  passengers — capitalists,  miners,  "sports," 
thieves,  robbers,  and  adventurers  of  all  kinds.  Cutting,  shoot- 
ing, and  rows  of  every  description  became  of  much  more 
frequent  occurrence  than  at  any  time  in  the  early  days.  The 
stages  on  all  the  roads  leading  to  the  city  were  very  frequently 
robbed  by  masked  men,  who  halted  the  driver  with  revolvers 

146 


FOOTPADS  ON  THE  "DIVIDE."  147 

or  double-barrelled  shot-guns  and  called  upon  him  to  hand  out 
Wells,  Fargo  &  Go's  treasure-box.  One  driver  was  halted 
so  often  and  became  so  well  acquainted  with  the  routine  of 
the  business,  that  whenever  he  happened  upon  a  man  with  a 
shot-gun,  he  went  down  into  the  boot  of  his  vehicle  for  the 
treasure-box.  The  usual  plan  of  the  robbers,  after  securing  the 
treasure-box,  was  to  form  the  passengers  in  line  by  the  roadside, 
and  while  one  masked  robber  stood  guard  over  them  with  a 
shot-gun,  another  would  search  them  and  relieve  them  of  their 
coin,  watches,  and  other  valuables.  After  this  ceremony  they 
would  be  ordered  on  board  the  stage  and  told  to  "  go  along." 

The  stages  were  robbed  scores  of  times,  bars  of  bullion, 
coin,  and  all  manner  of  valuables  being  taken.  It  was  finally 
ascertained  that  the  gang  who  did  most  of  this  work — indeed, 
made  it  a  regular  business — were  men  living  on  Six-mile 
Canon,  only  about  five  miles  from  Virginia  City.  They  were 
ostensibly  engaged  in  mining  and  had  leased  a  mill,  but  the 
bars  they  produced  were  those  captured  in  their  raids  upon 
the  stages.  The  mill  was  only  a  blind.  Without  it  they 
would  not  have  dared  to  dispose  of  their  stolen  bars.  The 
capture  of  stage-coaches  being  considered  not  quite  up  to  the 
genius  of  the  gang,  they  finally  took  a  whole  train  of  cars  on 
the  Central  Pacific  Railroad,  and  got  a  spoil  of  over  $50,000. 
But  this  was  their  last  exploit.  All  were  soon  captured  and 
the  greater  part  of  the  stolen  treasure  recovered. 

On  the  ridge  between  Virginia  City  and  Gold  Hill,  called 
the  "  Divide,"  and  forming  the  suburbs  of  both  towns,  was  for 
some  years  a  place  where  footpads  prowled  nightly,  and  rob- 
beries there  were  of  constant  occurrence.  A  belated  Gold 
Hiller  would  be  hurrying  to  his  home  when  a  man  would 
suddenly  step  out  from  behind  a  lumber-pile  and  tell  him  to 
hold  up  his  hands.  With  a  cocked  pistol  pointed  at  his  head 
the  Gold  Hiller,  or  any  other  man,  uniformly  obeyed  the 
order,  when  he  was  quickly  relieved  of  his  loose  change  and 
told  to  "  move  on."  A  footpad  would  sometimes  rob  three  or 
four  men  in  quick  succession  in  this  way,  provided  they  hap- 
pened along  one  at  a  time.  They  were  quite  industrious,  and 
were  not  the  men  to  borrow  or  beg  while  they  were  able  to 
make  a  living  by  the  labor  of  their  hands. 


148  ATTACKING  A  DUTCHMAN. 

On  one  occasion  a  Virginian  was  coming  up  over  the  Divide 
from  Gold  Hill  late  at  night.  He  had  three  twenty-dollar 
gold  pieces  in  his  breeches'  pocket,  and,  happening  to  be  saun- 
tering along  with  his  hands  in  his  pockets,  had  the  coin  in 
his  hand.  Suddenly  a  masked  man  stepped  before  him  and 
thrusting  a  pistol  into  his  face,  cried :  "  Hold  up  your  hands, 
sir ! "  The  gentleman  held  both  hands  high  above  his  head, 
when  the  footpad  searched  his  pockets  and  found  nothing.  The 
gentleman  had  closed  his  hand  upon  the  three  "twenties  "  and 
held  them  above  his  head  while  submitting  to  the  search.  The 
footpad  was  evidently  much  disappointed,  as  he  said :  "  If 
you  ever  come  along  here  again  without  any  money,  I'll  take 
you  a  lick  under  the  butt  of  the  ear.  That's  what  I'll  do  with 
you !  " 

One  night  a  stout  young  German  was  passing  over  the 
Divide,  when  he  was  suddenly  confronted  by  two  masked 
robbers,  one  of  whom  placed  a  six-shooter  at  his  head.  The 
level-headed  German  just  reached  out  and  twisted  the  pistol 
out  of  the  robber's  hand ;  whereupon  he  and  his  partner  in  the 
business  of  collecting  tolls  from  belated  travelers  took  to  their 
heels,  zigzagging  and  dodging  industriously  in  the  expectation 
that  a  bullet  would  be  sent  after  them.  Some  one  asked  the 
young  German  what  put  it  into  his  head  to  go  for  the  pistol. 
"  Py  dunder,"  said  he,  "  I  did  vant  him ;  because  in  der  spring, 
you  see,  I  goes  to  der  Bannock  country ! " 

Although  few  dead  bodies  were  found  on  the  roads,  it  is 
supposed  that  many  murders  were  committed  about  this  time, 
the  majority  of  the  victims  being  strangers  in  the  country; 
yet  not  a  few  well-known  residents  of  the  State  have  from 
time  to  time  mysteriously  disappeared.  Almost  every  year 
the  remains  of  human  beings  are  found  in  old  shafts.  In- 
quests are  held  by  the  coroner  of  the  county,  but  the  remains 
are  generally  so  much  decomposed  that  they  cannot  be  iden- 
tified, and  the  witnesses  summoned  can  only  make  mention  of 
the  several  men  known  to  them  who  have  at  various  times 
suddenly  and  unaccountably  disappeared.  In  one  old  shaft, 
when  work  was  resumed  on  it  after  the  lapse  of  some  years, 
no  less  than  three  dead  bodies  of  men  were  found.  Pieces  of 
rope  were  found  tied  about  the  arms  and  legs,  as  though  for 


MYSTERIOUS  DISAPPEARANCES. 


the  purpose  of  making  the  bodies  up  into  a  bundle  convenient 
for  transportation  to  the  shaft.  This  shaft  was  located  below 
the  town  of  Gold  Hill,  a  short  distance  from  a  road  on  which 
there  were  few  houses.  Many  persons  have  also,  no  doubt, 
accidentally  walked  into  these  old  abandoned  shafts,  which 
everywhere  cover  the  face  of  the  country,  in  the  night  or  in 
the  winter,  when  their  mouths  were  covered  with  drifts  of 
snow.  There  are  many  instances  of  this  where  persons  have 
narrowly  escaped  death. 

In  Virginia  City  and  other  Washoe  towns  many  goats  are 
kept  by  families  for  their  milk.  There  are  hundreds  of  goats 
to  be  seen  everywhere  on  the  hiljs  and  mountains.  The  goat 
is  an  animal  that  is  fond  of  caves  and  caverns.  De  Foe  was 
right  in  putting  an  old  goat  into  a  dark  cavern,  in  his  "  Robin- 
son Crusoe."  The  goats  in  Washoe  constantly  frequent  the 
old  tunnels  high  up  on  the  side  of  Mount  Davidson  and  other 
mountains.  In  many  of  these  tunnels,  at  a  distance  of  from 
two  hundred  to  five  hundred  feet  from  the  mouth,  vertical 
shafts  have  been  sunk,  to  the  depth  of  from  one  hundred  to 
two  or  three  hundred  feet.  It  often  happens  that  the  goats, 
in  the  darkness  of  the  old  tunnels,  walk  into  these  shafts. 
Some  years  ago  a  man  living  on  Gold  Canon  went  out  to  look 
up  a  strayed  goat.  He  found  the  fresh  tracks  of  goats  leading- 
into  an  old  tunnel,  and  ventured  in.  In  walking  back  along 
the  tunnel  in  the  darkness  he  fell  into  a  shaft  in  its  bottom, 
The  shaft  was  about  eighty  feet  in  depth,  and  he  would  prob- 
ably have  been  instantly  killed,  but  that  there  were  at  the 
bottom  the  bodies  of  four  or  five  dead  goats  ;  as  it  was,  he  had 
an  arm  and  a  leg  broken. 

The  man  being  missed,  his  neighbors  turned  out  in  search  of 
him.  They  found  his  tracks  leading  into  the  tunnel  and  went 
in  after  him,  in  Indian  file.  Suddenly  the  head  man  disap- 
peared, he  having  in  the  dim  light  of  the  place,  stepped  into 
the  mouth  of  the  old  shaft.  From  the  groans  heard  below  his 
friends  knew  that  he  had  not  been  killed,  and  at  once  pro- 
cured a  windlass  and  rope  and  descended  to  his  rescue,  when, 
to  their  surprise,  they  found  that  they  had  two  men  in  the 
bottom  of  the  shaft.  The  man  who  last  fell  in  had  a  leg 
broken,  and  by  his  fall  came  so  near  jolting  the  life  out  of  the 
9 


150  SEARCH  FOR  THE  MISSING. 

man  of  whom  they  at  first  came  in  search,  that  when  first 
taken  out  it  was  thought  he  was  dead. 

In  Virginia  City,  some  men  who  were  one  day  at  work  in  a 
lumber-yard,  concluded  it  would  be  a  good  plan  to  pile  a  lot 
of  boards  over  the  mouth  of  an  old  shaft  that  was  in  a  part  of 
the  yard,  not  far  from  the  principal  street  leading  to  the  town 
of  Gold  Hill.  After  they  had  commenced  the  work,  one  of 
the  men  said  that  as  he  put  down  a  plank  he  thought  that 
he  heard  a  groan  in  the  shaft.  All  listened.  After  a  time 
another  man  said  he  had  heard  what  seemed  to  be  a  faint 
moan  at  the  bottom  of  the  shaft.  All  again  listened,  and 
hearing  nothing  more  were. about  to  go  on  with  their  work, 
when  there  came  up  from  the  bottom  of  the  shaft  a  deep  groan 
that  was  heard  by  all.  A  windlass  was  procured,  and  on  de- 
scending the  shaft  a  man  was  found  lying  at  its  bottom  in  an 
unconscious  condition.  He  was  brought  to  the  surface,  when 
it  was  found  that  he  had  a  leg  broken  in  two  places,  and  was 
badly  cut  and  bruised  in  many  parts  of  his  body.  He  was  a 
man  weighing  about  180  pounds,  and  had  fallen  a  distance  of 
over  one  hundred  feet.  He  proved  to  be  an  engineer  employed 
at  one  of  the  mills  at  Silver  City,  and  finally  fully  recovered. 
He  remembered  nothing  about  falling  into  the  shaft;  he  only 
remembered  that  on  a  certain  day  he  was  in  Virginia  City  and 
started  for  home  very  drunk.  From  this  it  was  shown  that 
he  had  been  in  the  shaft  three  days  and  nights  when  found. 
He  stated,  that  while  in  the  shaft  he  regained  his  consciousness 
for  a  time,  and  to  some  extent  comprehended  his  situation,  as, 
looking  about,  he  saw  the  walls  of  the  shaft  and  the  light  of 
day  at  its  top.  When  he  recovered  he  "  swore  off"  drinking — 
never  would  drink  another  drop  as  long  as  he  lived — and  did 
not  get  drunk  again  for  nearly  a  month. 

One  day  a  boy  about  six  years  of  age  was  lost  at  Virginia 
City.  His  parents  and  their  neighbors  searched  in  vain  for 
the  missing  child.  The  police  turned  out  to  their  assistance, 
and  many  firemen  and  miners  joined  in  the  search.  Bell- 
ringers  had  been  through  the  city,  and  every  place  above 
ground  had  been  searched.  A  dog  had  accompanied  the  boy 
when  he  left  home,  and  this  dog  was  also  missing.  Finally 
some  one  went  up  on  the  side  of  the  mountain  above  town, 
and  entered  an  old  tunnel,  in  the  floor  of  which  was  a  vertical 


A  BONANZA  OF  BEEF. 


A  BONANZA   OF  BEEF.  153 

shaft  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in  depth.  Calling  at  the 
mouth  of  this  shaft,  a  faint  cry  was  heard  below.  A  windlass 
was  hastily  rigged,  and  a  miner  descended  the  shaft,  and  at  its 
bottom  found  the  missing  child  with  not  a  bone  broken.  He 
had  fallen  upon  the  dead  bodies  of  two  or  three  goats  that  lay 
at  the  bottom  of  the  shaft.  The  dog  was  also  found  alive  at 
the  bottom  of  the  shaft.  The  man  who  descended  was  almost 
suffocated  when  he  came  to  the  surface.  The  air  was  bad  in 
the  bottom  of  the  shaft  and  the  stench  from  the  dead  goats 
almost  unendurable.  The  child  was  nearly  dead  when  taken 
out,  and  was  covered  with  a  mass  of  flies  that  had  insinuated 
themselves  into  his  mouth,  nose,  ears,  and  eyes ;  but  in  about 
ten  days  the  little  fellow  had  fully  recovered  and  was  ready 
for  fresh  adventures. 

Many  other  instances — scores  of  them — might  be  given  to 
show  the  dangerous  character  of  these  traps,  which  every- 
where cover  the  face  of  the  country,  for  miles  about  the  prin- 
cipal mining  towns,  but  I  shall  cdnclude  with  the  following: 

A  teamster,  stopping  at  noon  two  or  three  miles  from  the 
city,  unhitched  eight  yoke  of  oxen  from  his  wagon,  in  order 
to  let  them  graze  about  among  the  sage-brush  while  he  was 
eating  his  dinner.  Although  unhitched,  they  were  fastened 
together  in  a  string  by  a  heavy  log-chain  which  passed  through 
their  several  yokes.  The  teamster,  seated  on  his  wagon,  eating, 
was  astounded  at  seeing  his  whole  team  of  cattle,  then  distant 
about  one  hundred  yards,  suddenly  disappear  into  the  ground. 
In  picking  along  they  reached  an  old  shaft,  round  which 
those  in  the  lead  had  passed,  then  moving  forward  had  so 
straightened  the  line  as  to  pull  a  middle  yoke  into  the  mouth 
of  the  shaft.  All  then  followed,  going  down  like  links  of 
sausage.  The  shaft  was  three  hundred  feet  in  depth,  and  that 
bonanza  of  beef  still  remains  unworked  at  its  bottom. 

The  Comstock  range  is  a  region  in  which  a  stranger  should 
never  venture  to  wander  at  night,  either  on  foot  or  on  horse- 
back. Even  in  daylight,  in  the  midst  of  a  driving  snow-storm, 
a  man  once  rode  his  horse  into  a  shaft  over  fifty  feet  in  depth. 
The  city  authorities  have  caused  most  of  the  old  shafts  to  be 
filled  up  or  securely  planked  over,  but  scores  of  open  shafts 
are  still  to  be  seen  everywhere  in  the  suburbs  of  the  town. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE  MOUNTAIN  REGION  OF  NEVADA. 

MOUNT  Davidson,  of  which  frequent  mention  has  been 
made,  was  originally  called  "  Sun  Peak."  This  was  the 
name  given  it  by  the  early  miners  of  Gold  Canon — Old 
Virginia,  Comstock,  O'Riley,  and  the  other  pioneers  of  the 
country.  It  was  a  very  appropriate  name,  as  the  towering 
granite  peak  reaching  far  above  all  others  about  it  is  the  first 
to  be  lighted  by  the  morning  sun  and  the  last  on  which  rest  his 
evening  rays. 

The  mountain  was  given  its  present  name  in  honor  of  the  late 
Donald  Davidson,  of  San  Francisco,  who  in  the  early  days 
purchased  the  ores  of  the  Ophir  and  other  companies  on  the 
Comstock,  sending  them  to  England  for  reduction.  On  one  of 
his  trips  to  Virginia,  Donald  Davidson  accompanied  a  party  of 
men  to  the  summit  of  the  mountain.  On  their  return  to  the 
town  it  was  unanimously  agreed  that  the  tall  peak  which  they 
had  that  day  scaled  should  be  called  Mount  Davidson. 

Half  a  score  of  the  hardy  miners  whose  camps  were  pitched 
along  the  lead  had  accompanied  Mr.  Davidson  up  the  mountain, 
and  while  on  their  way  a  number  of  quartz  veins  of  more  or  less 
promising  appearance  were  found.  In  the  evening,  while  in  a 
saloon,  talking  over  the  events  of  the  day,  it  was  thought  that  it 
would  not  be  a  bad  idea  to  locate  some  of  the  ledges  they  had 
seen.  The  charge  was  then  fifty  cents  per  name  for  recording 
a  claim  of  two  hundred  feet  on  a  ledge.  A  man  called  "  Joe 
Bowers,"  but  probably  not  the  original  "  Joe  "  immortalized  by 
the  poet,  took  the  lead  in  making  out  the  notices  and  arranging 
for  the  recording.  Joe  swore  that  all  the  ledges  they  had  seen 

154 


PROVIDING  FOR  HIS  FRIENDS.  155 

were  immensely  rich — millions  in  them  ! — and  would  make  the 
fortune  of  any  man  who  had  an  interest  in  any  one  of  them. 
As  the  names  were  mentioned  and  written  down  on  the  notices, 
Joe  called  for  "  four-bits."  This  must  be  put  up,  in  order  that  it 
might  be  handed  over  to  the  recorder  of  the  district  the  first 
thing  in  the  morning. 

Donald  Davidson  would  say:  "Well,  here  is  Mr.  A.,  a  neigh- 
bor of  mine  in  San  Francisco,  and  a  very  worthy  man ;  suppose 
we  put  him  down  for  a  claim  in  this  mine  ?  " 

"All  right,  Mr.  Davidson,"  Joe  would  cry,  "all  right,  sir;  put 
up  for  him  and  in  he  goes  !  " 

"Then  there  is  Mr.  B.,  a  friend  of  mine  and  a  worthy  fellow; 
we  might  put  him  down." 

"All  right,  Mr.  Davidson,"  cried  Joe,  who  cared  not  how  long 
the  string  of  names  might  be,  provided  each  name  were  repre- 
sented in  his  pocket  by  a  half-dollar,  "  down  he  goes !  " 

All  the  notices  were  finally  made  out,  and  all  the  half-dollars 
paid  in.  Joe  was  to  attend  to  the  recording  the  first  thing  in  the 
morning,  but  that  night  he  struck  a  "  little  game  of  draw,"  and 
to  this  day  those  claims  have  not  been  recorded — at  least  not 
by  Joseph. 

As  the  leads  upon  the  side  of  Mount  Davidson  have  turned  out, 
it  was  no  doubt  a  fortunate  thing  for  the  old  Scotchman's 
"  worthy  friends  "  that  Joe  found  his  "  little  game.,"  The  height 
of  Mount  Davidson  above  the  level  of  the  sea  is  7,775  feet,  and 
the  altitude  of  C  street,  the  principal  business  street  in  Virginia 
City,  is  6,205  feet.  Thus,  it  will  be  seen,  the  peak  of  the  mount- 
ain towers  to  the  height  of  1,570  feet  above  the  town.  As  the 
city  stands  on  the  eastern  face  of  the  mountain,  the  sunsets  in 
Virginia  are  rather  early.  In  winter  the  sun  sinks  behind  the 
top  of  Mount  Davidson  about  3  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  when 
the  city  lies  in  shadow  and  it  at  once  begins  to  grow  cold.  The 
altitude  of  the  place  is  so  great  that,  at  any  season,  when  clouds 
obscure  the  sun  and  shut  out  his  rays  it  rapidly  becomes  cold. 
During  the  summer,  however,  clouds  are  seldom  seen — weeks 
and  weeks  pass  without  a  cloudy  day.  In  order  to  have  the 
benefit  of  the  sun  in  winter,  until  a  late  hour  each  day,  a  Washoe 
genius  once  proposed  to  run  a  large  tunnel  through  the  peak  of 
Mount  Davidson.  Through  this  tunnel  he  proposed  to  bring 


156  THE  SIERRA  NEVADA  MOUNTAINS. 

the  light  and  heat  of  the  sun  after  it  had  gone  down  behind  the 
mountain.  As  he  could  not  expect  the  sun  to  shine  directly 
through  the  tunnel  at  all  points  in  his  course  down  to  the  west- 
ern horizon,  our  inventor  proposed  to  set  at  the  western  terminus 
of  his  tunnel  a  huge  mirror,  moved  by  clock-work,  which  should 
pour  the  rays  of  the  sun  in  a  constant  stream  through  the  tunnel. 
At  the  eastern  terminus  was  to  be  placed  a  large  receiving  mirror, 
which  should  catch  the  rays  coming  through  the  tunnel  and 
throw  them  to  a  distributing  mirror  down  in  the  town,  arid  from 
this  the  sunlight  would  be  reflected  throughout  the  town  by 
smaller  mirrors  placed  at  proper  points  on  all  the  streets. 
Although  this  grand  scheme  was  much  admired,  capital — which 
is  proverbially  timid — could  never  be  found  to  begin  the  work. 

There  is  a  grand  view  from  the  summit  of  Mount  Davidson. 
On  a  clear  day  the  eye  reaches  hundreds  of  miles  in  many 
directions.  The  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains,  twenty-five  miles 
away  to  the  west,  and  extending  north  and  south  as  far  as  the 
eye  can  reach,  form  a  magnificent  panorama  of  wild  mountain 
scenery,  embracing  hundreds  of  tall  snowy  peaks  and  dark,  pine- 
clad  ridges  reaching  upwards  toward  naked  granite  towers.  To 
the  southward  along  the  great  range,  the  peaks  are  taller  and 
more  imposing  than  those  rising  along  the  northern  part  of  its 
course.  To  the  southward,  then,  we  turn  and  see  at  the  distance 
of  from  forty  to  seventy-five  or  eighty  miles,  scores  of  massive 
peaks  standing  stately  and  clearly  defined  against  the  sky.  Seen 
when  robed  from  head  to  foot  in  glittering  snow,  these  peaks 
present  a  particularly  striking  appearance.  They  may  easily  be 
imagined  an  army  of  giants  marching  up  from  the  desert  wilds 
of  Arizona  in  meandering  array. 

Far  away  the  tail  of  this  procession  of  the  peaks  is  seen  to 
sweep  miles  on  miles  to  the  eastward,  while  above  the  white 
hoods  of  the  giants  forming  this  lagging  curve,  is  dimly  discerned 
through  the  haze  a  hint  of  heads  in  the  still  more  distant  rear, 
swinging  back  to  the  west  and  falling,  as  it  were,  into  the  general 
line  of  march  to  the  northward.  All  above,  beyond,  and  about 
the  giant  army,  looks  so  settled,  calm,  and  silent  that  one  is  awed 
into  all  manner  of  wierd  imaginings  in  regard  to  its  motionless 
march.  These  -mighty  peaks  are  impressive  at  any  time,  but 
when  they  come  before  us  in  procession  robed  in  their  trailing 


THE  ASCENT  OF  MOUNT  DA  VIDSON.  157 

i . 

shrouds  they  set  us  to  thinking  ponderous,  solemn  thoughts  that 
we  don't  more  than  half  like.  The  view  to  the  eastward  is 
unobstructed  for  over  one  hundred  miles,  and  by  its  vastness  and 
its  stern  ruggedness  is  made  imposing  and  grand,  though  but  a 
region  of  rocky  sterile  mountains  and  broad  deserts  crested  over 
with  salt  and  alkaline  exudations  from  the  sandy  and  bitter  soil. 

Far  as  the  eye  can  range,  not  a  tree,  not  a  house,  not  a  sign  of 
life  is  seen.  All  is  as  dead,  and  as  arid  and  wrinkled  in  death, 
as  the  valleys  and  the  mountains  of  the  moon.  On  this  side — the 
east — clinging  along  the  face  of  the  mountain,  we  see  below  us 
Virginia  City ;  turning  again  to  the  west,  Washoe  Lake  is  seen 
shimmering  almost  at  the  base  of  the  peak  on  which  we  stand, 
its  waves  washing  the  feet  of  the  hills  that  flank  the  Sierras. 
Where  we  stand,  on  the  narrow  circle  of  granite  forming  the 
apex  of  the  mountain,  is  planted  a  tall  flag-staff  on  which,  upon 
each  recurrence  of  the  natal  day  of  the  nation,  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  are  unfurled.  The  flag  is  run  up  during  the  night,  by  a 
man  who  is  annually  sent  to  the  top  of  the  mountain  on  this 
errand,  and  those  who  turn  their  eyes  toward  the  peak,  on  the 
morning  of  the  4th  of  July,  will  always  see  the  flag  of  their 
country  floating  there  through  the  "dawn's  early  light." 

On  the  occasion  of  the  total  eclipse  of  the  moon,  which  occur- 
red on  the  night  of  October  24,  1874,  it  was  not  only  cloudy  at 
Virginia  City,  but  there  prevailed  a  furious  and  blinding  snow- 
storm. Not  a  glimpse  of  the  heavens  or  of  the  rising  moon  could 
be  obtained  when  evening  set  in.  Not  to  lose  a  spectacle  so 
grand  as  a  total  eclipse  of  the  moon,  I  determined  to  make  the 
ascent  of  Mount  Davidson  and  so  reach  a  point  above  the  clouds. 
Accompanied  by  half  a  dozen  friends,  I  started  a  few  minutes 
before  8  o'clock  in  the  evening,  and,  pressing  upward  through 
the  fast-falling  snow,  and  through  the  dense  cloud-mass,  which 
we  entered  on  the  upper  slopes  of  the  mountain,  at  10  o'clock 
we  reached  the  topmost  peak,  and  to  our  delight  found  that  we 
at  last  stood  above  the  clouds  and  the  storm. 

It  was  one  of  the  grandest  sights  ever  witnessed  by  mortals. 
As  far  as  the  eye  could  reach,  on  all  sides,  stretched  a  level  sea 
of  clouds.  All  the  surrounding  mountains  were  shut— all  the 
lower  world  was  hidden  ;  all  but  the  extreme  point  of  the  bare 
granite  peak  on  which  we  stood,  a  little  island  some  fifty  feet  in 


158  AN  ECLIPSE. 


circumference,  with  the  tall  flag-staff  standing  in  its  centre. 
High  above,  the  full  moon  shone  in  splendor,  and  in  all  quarters 
of  the  heavens  the  stars  twinkled  brightly.  The  air  was  keen 
and  frosty,  but  we  were  provided  with  blanket-overcoats  and 
mufflers. 

For  some  minutes  after  rising  out  of  the  sea  of  clouds  in 
which  we  had  so  long  been  enveloped,  our  little  party  stood  at 
the  foot  of  the  flag-staff  and  gazed  on  all  around  in  speechless 
awe.  It  almost  seemed  that  we  had  left  the  world.  Our  little 
island  appeared  to  be  all  that  remained  of  earth.  Hundreds  of 
miles  on  all  sides,  as  it  looked  to  us,  stretched  a  smooth  and 
level  sea  of  pearl.  In  the  distance  this  appeared  to  be  motion- 
less, but  nearer  it  all  moved  slowly  and  majestically  from  west 
to  east,  while,  at  the  same  time,  a  peculiar  swaying  up  and  down 
was  seen  as  it  passed  along.  On  and  along  the  crests  of  these 
cloud-waves,  or  rather  cloud-swells,  were  observed  to  run  and 
faintly  flicker  such  tints  as  are  seen  in  mother-of-pearl.  All  this 
was  very  beautiful,  but  with  it  came  a  sense  of  isolation  from  the 
world — a  feeling  of  loneliness  that  was  most  depressing. 
However,  as  the  moon  began  to  enter  the  shadow  of  the  earth 
there  were  so  many  and  such  wonderful  changes  in  the  appear- 
ance of  all  about  us,  that  our  loneliness  and  littleness  were  for- 
gotten. 

The  sea  about  us,  which  before  had  shown  only  the  tints  of 
the  pearl,  now  took  on  the  hue  of  amber,  but  still  floated  past 
and  gently  waved  up  and  down  as  had  the  sea  of  pearl.  As  the 
obscuration  progressed,  the  more  distant  portions  of  the  cloud- 
sea  changed  from  amber  to  brown,  and  this  to  black,  gradually 
closing  in  upon  us  from  all  sides,  but  most  from  the  northward. 
In  our  immediate  neighborhood  all  had  changed  from  amber  to 
a  deep  burnt-sienna  tinge.  So  deep  and  decided  was  this  tint 
that  at  one  time,  for  the  space  of  some  minutes,  it  seemed  to 
pervade  the  whole  atmosphere  ;  our  clothing  partook  of  it,  and 
the  flag-staff  near  which  we  stood  looked  like  a  great  rod  of 
rusty  iron. 

During  this  dark  stage  a  heavy  breeze  sprang  up,  and  the 
swells  in  the  vaporous  sea  surrounding  us  were  tossed  far  higher 
than  before.  At  times  these  billows  rolled  many  feet  above  our 
heads,  and  the  eclipse  being  then  nearly  total,  we  were  some- 


GOING  BACK  TO  THE  CITY.  159 

times,  for  minutes,  left  in  midnight  darkness,  and  but  for  the 
lanterns  we  had  carried  up  the  mountain,  and  which  were  stand- 
ing at  the  foot  of  the  flag-staff,  we  could  not  have  seen  our  hands 
when  held  before  our  faces.  But  these  waves  of  darkness  seldom 
lasted  more  than  two  or  three  minutes,  and  we  had,  from  first  to 
last,  an  imposing  and  deeply  impressive  view  of  the  eclipse. 
It  is  probable  that  a  total  eclipse  of  the  moon  was  never  before 
observed  under  precisely  such  circumstances  as  was  this  by  our 
little  party,  standing  on  a  mountain  peak  above  the  clouds.  As 
the  eclipse  passed  off,  about  the  same  phenomena' were  observed 
above  and  about  us  as  in  its  coming  on. 

Being  chilled  to  the  very  marrow  in  our  bones,  we  left  the  top 
of  the  mountain,  however,  while  nearly  half  the  face  of  the  moon 
was  still  obscured.  Taking  a  last  lingering  look  at  all  about  us, 
observing  that  our  cloud-sea  was  again  assuming  the  hue  of 
amber  and  that  the  horizon  was  widening  and  brightening  in  all 
directions,  as  the  light  spread  abroad  and  drove  back  the  brown 
and  the  more  distant  black,  we  plunged  down  into  the  thick  cloud- 
stratum,  and,  guided  by  the  light  of  our  lanterns,  made  the  best 
of  our  way  down  the  bed  of  a  huge  gorge  in  the  face  of  the 
mountain,  and  went  back  into  the  city.  Strange  as  it  may  appear 
to  some,  we  found  it  much  warmer  in  the  midst  of  the  clouds  and 
drifting  snow  than  above  on  the  summit  of  the  mountain.  Not 
one  of  the  party  will  ever  forget  that  total  eclipse  of  the  moon, 
seen  from  old  Mount  Davidson's  topmost  height,  nearly  8,000 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea. 


CHAPTER   XXI. 

THE   SIERRA   NEVADA   MOUNTAINS. 

THE  Virginia  range  of  mountains,  of  which  Mount  Da- 
vidson is  the  principal  peak,  is  separated  from  the 
Sierra  Nevada  Mountains  by  a  series  of  small  valleys, 
the  principal  of  which  are  Washoe  Valley,  Eagle  Valley, 
Steamboat  Valley,  and  the  Truckee  Meadows.  The  range 
can  be  traced  for  a  distance  of  about  one  hundred  miles  from 
the  point  where  it  diverges  from  the  Sierras,  as  they  trend  to 
the  northwest,  to  where  it  finally  dies  out  in  the  Mud  Lake 
region.  The  average  width  of  the  range  is  about  eighteen 
miles,  though  it  is  quite  irregular.  The  great  mass  of  the 
mountains  composing  the  range  is  made  up  of  volcanic  rocks, 
the  accumulation  of  several  successive  outpourings. 

On  the  eastern  face  of  Mount  Davidson,  about  1,500  feet 
below  the  summit,  are  found  the  croppings  of  the  Comstock 
lode.  The  rock  on  the  west  side  of  the  vein — called  the 
" country  rock"  by  mining  men,  because  it  is  the  general 
rock  of  the  country  outside  of  the  lode — is  syenite,  a  rock 
which  forms  the  mass  of  Mount  Davidson ;  on  the  east  side 
of  the  vein  the  country  rock  is  propylite,  a  volcanic  rock  of 
of  much  more  recent  origin  than  the  syenite,  (syenite  is 
much  the  same  as  granite,  and  propylite  is  a  rock  of  a  por- 
phyritic  character.)  Between  these  two  rocks,  by  some  throe 
of  nature,  was  formed  the  immense  fissure  in  which  lies  the 
Comstock  vein — a  fissure  known  to  be  nearly  four  miles  in 
length  and  from  one  or  two  hundred  to  nearly  fifteen  hun- 
dred feet  in  width.  This  vast  chasm  was  undoubtedly  formed 
by  volcanic  action.  It  is  not  one  fissure,  but  more  properly 
speaking,  a  series  of  rents  running  parallel  with  the  main 

160 


HOW  THE  FISSURES  WERE  FORMED.  161 

opening.  The  smaller  parallel  fractures  are  principally  in 
the  propylite  or  east  country  rock.  It  is  but  natural  that 
they  should  be  in  this,  as  it  was  the  stratum  that  was  lifted 
up  and  shattered  when  the  main  fissure  was  formed.  In 
depth,  all  of  these  rents  will  be  found  to  be  lost  in  the  prin- 
cipal opening. 

After  the  rending  apart  of  the  rocks  and  the  formation  of 
the  chasm,  there  doubtless  burst  up  through  the  opening  im- 
mense volumes  of  hot  mineral  waters,  steam,  and  gases,  from 
solfataras  or  hot  springs  underneath,  and  these  charged  the 
vein  with  its  rich  sulphurets  and  other  ores  of  silver. 

Signs  of  hot  springs  are  seen  everywhere  on  the  hills  to  the 
eastward  of  the  vein,  and  hot  springs  that  are  still  active  are 
found  in  various  directions,  at  the  distance  of  a  few  miles,  the 
most  remarkable  of  which  are  those  known  as  the  Steamboat 
Springs;  which,  even  at  this  day,  are  briskly  sending  up  hot 
water,  steam,  and  columns  of  heated  gases  through  a  fissure 
over  a  mile  in  length,  in  fact  are  actively  engaged  in  the  form- 
ation of  a  metallic  lode. 

It  is  not  improbable  that  the  fissure  in  which  the  Comstock 
lode  was  formed  was  originally  rent  by  the  upward  pressure 
of  the  confined  steam  and  gases  of  hot  springs  formed  between 
the  syenite  and  propylite  far  beneath  the  surface  of  the  earth. 
Be  that  as  it  may,  the  rent  was  formed,  and  afterwards  was 
charged  with  its  present  mineral  contents. 

When  the  rocks  were  rent  apart,  fragments  from  the  edges 
of  the  chasm — principally  from  the  east  or  propylite  side,  the 
side  reared  up — fell  into  the  opening,  and  sliding  down  the 
smooth  slope  of  the  syenite,  blocked  the  fissure,  preventing  its 
closing.  Some  of  these  fragments  were  at  least  one  thousand 
feet  long  and  from  three  to  four  hundred  feet  in  thickness,  and 
many  of  them  were  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in 
length,  with  a  proportionate  thickness.  These  still  rest  in  the 
vein,  the  ore,  quartz,  etc.  having  formed  about  them. 

By  the  miners  these  are  called  "horses."  They  are  gener- 
ally composed  of  propylite  (commonly  spoken  of  as  porphyry 
in  the  mines,  owing  to  its  inclosing  crystals  of  feldspar  and 
fragments  of  hornblende),  but  there  are  some  that  came  from 
the  west  side  of  the  fissure  and  are  syenite. 


162  FORMATION  OF  QUARTZ  AND  ORES. 

After  the  fissure  was  thus  propped  open,  still  other  frag- 
ments of  propylite  fell  from  its  roof  during  the  time  the  vein 
was  filling  with  its  present  precious  contents,  and  these  are 
found  to  be  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  ore  of  the  richest 
character.  The  cavities  caused  by  their  displacement  were 
also  filled  with  quartz  and  ore.  This  makes  the  east  wall  or 
propylite  side  of  the  vein  very  jagged  and  uneven,  while  the 
less  disturbed  west  or  syenite  wall  is  quite  regular,  descend- 
ing to  the  eastward  at  an  angle  of  from  thirty-five  to  fifty 
degrees,  being  throughout  quite  smooth  and  covered  with  a 
heavy  coating  of  clay. 

The  fragments  of  rock  that  fell  into  the  chasm  during  the 
time  it  was  being  charged  with  the  precious  metals,*  formed 
each  a  nucleus  about  which  the  quartz  and  ores  collected. 
In  all  parts  of  the  vein  are  to  be  seen  pieces  of  country  rock, 
from  the  size  of  a  filbert  to  many  pounds  in  weight,  about 
which  quartz  has  formed,  and  with  the  quartz  ore. 

After  the  vein  was  filled,  it  appears  to  have  again  several 
times  opened,  when  fresh  fragments  fell  into  the  newly  formed 
fissures,  and  were  surrounded  by  quartz  and  ores  by  the  action 
of  the  waters  and  gases  forced  up  from  below.  These  several 
convulsions  pulverized  the  quartz  and  ore  previously  formed 
in  the  vein,  leaving  it  in  such  a  condition  that  in  most  of  the 
mines  the  greater  part  of  it  can  be  dug  down  with  picks. 

In  most  places  in  the  ore-bodies  in  the  lower  levels,  appear- 
ances indicate  that  while  the  ore  and  quartz  were  in  this 
shattered  and  pulverized  state,  floods  of  hot  water  poured  in 
upon  it  and  boiled  it  as  in  a  caldron,  and  that  at  the  end  of 
this  cooking  operation  it  finally  settled  down,  assuming  a  hor- 
izontally stratified  position.  In  this  way  must  have  been 
formed  the  occasional  streaks  of  clay  and  the  numerous  strata 
of  various  shades  of  color  and  degrees  of  fineness  of  subdivis- 
ion of  component  parts  seen  in  the  ore  as  it  now  rests  in  the 
vein.  It  is  as  plainly  sedimentary  in  form  as  any  gravel 
deposit  seen  on  the  surface.  This  is  not  seen  everywhere  in 
the  lower  levels,  but  in  such  places  as  were  most  subject  to 
dynamical  action. 

All  who  have  visited  the  lower  levels  of  the  mines  on  the 
•Comstock  lode  must  have  observed,  even  upon  the  most 


HOW  THE  COM  STOCK  VEIN  WAS  FORMED.          163 

cursory  examination  of  the  ores,  the  peculiar^tratification  of 
which  I  speak.  The  chasm  in  which  is  formed  the  Comstock 
lode  was  doubtless  at  one  time  a  seething  caldron,  and  at  the 
great  depths  now  attained,  not  only  great  quantities  of  hot 
water  are  found,  but  the  rock  itself  is  in  many  places  suffic- 
iently hot  to  be  almost  painful  to  the  naked  hand. 

The  course  or  "  strike  "  of  the  Comstock  vein  is  a  little  east 
of  the  magnetic  meridian,  about  north  twenty-five  degrees  east. 
The  lode  crops  out  in  several  places  along  the  face  of  Mount 
Davidson,  throwing  up  huge  piles  of  quartz  at  intervals  of 
from  three  hundred  to  five  hundred  or  one  thousand  yards,  as 
it  takes  its  course  southward  across  the  "  Divide,"  and  through 
and  beyond  Gold  Hill ;  also,  to  the  northward,  in  the  direction 
of  Cedar  Hill  and  Seven-mile  Canon.  When  the  ledge  crops 
out  it  has  a  first  or  false  dip  to  the  west,  but  after  being  fol- 
lowed down  it  becomes  straight,  then  turns,  and  takes  its 
regular  dip  to  the  east  at  an  angle  of  from  thirty-five  to  fifty 
degrees.  In  the  Ophir,  when  the  true  dip  was  first  discovered, 
the  vein  turned  to  the  east  at  the  depth  of  three  hundred  and 
thirty  feet.  The  croppings  of  the  vein  being  above  and  to  the 
west  of  Virginia  City,  this  eastern  dip  carries  it  under  the 
whole  length  and  breadth  of  the  town,  and  it  also  passes  under 
the  town  of  Gold  Hill,  a  mile  further  south  in  the  same  way. 

The  lead  follows  the  curved  outlines  of  the  hills  on  the 
surface,  swinging  in  at  the  ravines  and  bearing  out  on  the 
points  of  the  ridges,  but  as  depth  is  attained  it  will  doubtless 
be  found  to  straighten  in  the  direction  of  its  present  general 
course.  The  only  gangue  of  the  vein  is  quartz,  though,  in 
places,  there  are  found  detached  patches  and  masses  of  gyp- 
sum and  carbonate  of  lime.  The  ore  contains  native  gold, 
native  silver,  sulphuret  of  silver  (silver  glance),  stephanite, 
chloride  of  silver,  some  rich  galena  and  antimony,  and  a  few 
rare  forms  of  silver  in  small  quantities;  also,  mingled  with 
the  whole  mass  of  the  ores,  iron  pyrites,  copper  pyrites,  zinc- 
blende,  and  a  few  other  minerals. 

The  early  miners  began  the  work  of  opening  their  claims 
along  the  Comstock  by  sinking  shafts  on  the  croppings  and 
by  running  short  tunnels  to  pass  under  these  croppings  and 
tap  the  vein  at  depths  varying  from  two  hundred  to  six  or 


164:  DISAGREEABLE  "PINCHING." 

seven  hundred  feet.  The  shafts  were  mere  circular  holes 
precisely  like  an  ordinary  well,  and  a  common  windlass,  rope, 
and  bucket,  constituted  all  there  was  coming  under  the  head 
of  machinery. 

When  more  water  was  encountered  than  could  be  hoisted 
out  with  a  bucket,  these  early  miners  were  at  the  "end  of  their 
string."  Those  who  were  running  tunnels,  however,  were  not 
incommoded  by  the  water  they  tapped  during  the  progress  of 
their  work,  as  it  flowed  out  as  fast  as  it  came  in. 

The  Ophir  mine  was  at  first  worked  by  means  of  an  incline 
which  followed  the  dip  of  the  vein  to  the  west.  They  soon 
began  to  be  bothered  with  water  and  were  obliged  to  set  up  a 
small  pump,  as  has  already  been  stated.  All  of  those  who 
had  locations  on  the  Comstock,  however,  were  able  to  find 
means  for  the  erection  of  machinery  as  soon  as  it  was  found 
necessary  to  use  it,  though  much  of  the  first  hoisting  and 
pumping  apparatus  was  too  light  and  was  badly  arranged. 
But  almost  any  kind  of  steam  machinery  was  better  than 
hoisting  by  the  hand-windlass  or  with  the  horse-whim. 

After  starting  up  with  steam  hoisting-works,  it  was  not 
long  before  a  number  of  companies  began  to  extract  ore  from 
the  upper  series  of  bonanzas,  and  these  being  exhausted,  car- 
ried their  work  to  lower  levels  and  searched  out  new  bodies 
of  ore.  It  often  happened  that  when  the  ore  in  sight  was 
exhausted,  the  company  was  obliged  to  drift  in  all  directions 
for  a  long  time  before  again  finding  paying  ore.  In  case  a 
level  was  opened  and  explored  in  all  parts  without  finding 
ore,  sinking  was  resumed  in  the  main  shaft,  and  a  new  level 
was  opened  at  a  greater  depth  in  the  vein.  The  miners  are 
never  discouraged  so  long  as  they  find  a  good  width  o'f  quartz 
and  other  vein-matter  between  the  two  walls  of  the  lode,  as 
there  is  then  always  a  chance  of  finding  ore  somewhere  in  the 
mass.  What  they  do  not  like,  however,  is  to  find  the  walls 
coming  together — "pinching,"  as  they  call  it.  The  coming 
together  of  the  walls  pinches  out  or  cuts  off  the  vein ;  yet, 
even  at  the  "  pinch,"  there  is  always  left  a  seam  of  clay,  or 
sgme  such  sign,  by  which  the  lead  may  be  followed  until  the 
pinch  has  been  passed  and  the  vein  again  widens  and  becomes 
ore-producing. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

BONANZA    AND    BORRASCA. 

THERE  are  always  some  companies  in  "  borrasca  " — out  of 
luck ;  in  barren  rock — while  others  are  in  "  bonanza  " — 
in  good  luck ;  working  large  bodies  of  rich  ore.     In  a 
year  or  two,  those  who  are  to-day  at  work  in  barren  quartz  may 
have  a  rich  body  of  ore,  while  those  who  are  to-day  in  rich  ore 
may  in  a  year  or  two  be  delving  through  barren  rock  in  search 
of  a  new  bonanza. 

When  a  company  has  for  a  long  time  been  engaged  in  the  un- 
successful search  for  ore,  their  stock  very  frequently  falls  to  a 
very  low  figure  and  few  care  to  buy  it  at  all,  when  of  a  sudden 
they  come  upon  a  great  body  of  rich  ore.  A  rumor  of  this  reaches 
the  surface,  and  those  who  have  money  to  invest  buy — "  take  in  " 
— a  few  shares  at  a  venture.  The  officers  of  the  company  and 
their  friends  in  San  Francisco — who  are  daily  informed  by  tele- 
graph of  all  that  is  going  on  in  the  mine — begin  to  quietly 
gather  in  all  of  the  stock  that  they  can  find,  and  soon  the  secret 
is  out  and  the  stock  at  once  bounds  upward  to  a  high  figure. 
Everybody  then  becomes  wild  to  possess  a  few  shares  of  the 
stock.  Men  who  would  not  touch  it  when  it  was  selling  for  a 
mere  trifle,  now  rush  in  and  pay  the  highest  prices.  Some  appear 
never  to  think  of  buying  stock  until  they  see  the  whole  com- 
munity excited  about  it  and  recklessly  bidding  for  it ;  they  then 
rush  in  and  pay  the  highest  figures.  It  is  like  piling  bricks  one 
upon  another  till  the  whole  column  begins  to  topple  and  finally 
tumbles  to  the  ground.  When  stock  goes  down  in  this  way  it 
nearly  always  goes  as  far  below  as  it  has  before  been  above  true 
merit. 

165 


166  SPECULA  TION. 


Many  men  who  are  good  judges  of  mines  make  large  purchases 
of  stock  in  mines  that  are  in  borrasca — that  are  out  of  ore  and 
appear  to  be  out  of  luck,  biding  their  time  for  profit.  They  have 
confidence  in  the  mine  from  the  position  it  occupies  on  the 
Comstock  lode  and  from  its  having  had  rich  bodies  of  ore  above. 
These,  they  will  contend,  were  never  rained  down  into  the  mines 
from  the  heavens,  but  came  up  from  the  regions  below ;  there- 
fore in  the  regions  below,  whence  came  the  rich  ore  already 
found,  there  must  be  more  of  the  same  kind.  To  find  it,  say 
they,  is  a  mere  matter  of  time. 

In  November,  1870,  an  immense  bonanza  was  found  in  the 
Crown  Point  mine,  Gold  Hill,  at  the  depth  of  1,100  feet.  Four 
months  before  the  discovery  of  this  bonanza,  that  is,  in  August 
of  the  same  year,  the  stock  of  the  mine  was  selling  at  three 
dollars  per  share;  in  May,  1872,  the  stock  was  selling  at  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars  per  share.  The 
same  bonanza  extended  south  into  the  Belcher  mine,  the  stock 
of  which  was  selling  for  one  dollar  and  fifty  cents  per  share  in 
September,  1870;  in  April,  1872,  it  sold  for  one  thousand  five 
hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars  per  share.  At  this  time,  how- 
ever, there  was  a  grand  stock  excitement  and  the  stock  of  many 
mines  in  which  there  was  little  if  any  ore  sold  at  very  high 
figures.  The  masses  had  come  into  the  market  as  purchasers 
and  were  blindly  buying  right  and  left ;  they  were  all  industri- 
ously engaged  in  adding  bricks  to  the  pile,  stocking  them  up 
higher  and  higher,  as  idiotically  strong  in  the  faith  that  they 
were  building  for  all  time  as  were  the  builders  of  Babel. 
Finally  down  went  everything  in  a  grand  crash.  During  this 
excitement  there  was  an  increase  in  the  value  of  the  mines  on  the 
Comstock,  in  about  two  months,  of  over  forty-five  million  dollars. 

It  frequently  happens  that  when  a  company  have  been  a  long 
time  in  search  of  ore  it  is  at  last  found  at  a  time  when  the  officers 
and  leading  men  have  but  a  small  amount  of  stock  in  their  posses- 
sion. They  then  not  only  keep  their  strike  a  secret,  but  in  case 
of  anything  leaking  out  through  their  men  they  bear  their  stock 
in  the  market,  throwing  in  all  the  shares  they  dare  venture  for 
the  purpose  of  breaking  down  the  price  in  order  that  they  may 
buy  in  a  great  amount  at  a  low  figure.  Sometimes  they  succeed 
in  this,  but  it  often  happens  that  the  "  outsiders  "  are  too  well 


THREE  FAMOUS  MINES. 


AN  INFALLIBLE  MAXIM.  167 

informed  in  regard  to  what  is  in  the  mine,  when  there  is  a 
general  scramble  for  the  stock  and  it  at  once  goes  up  with  a 
rush.  Not  a  few  persons  nearly  always  make  money  in  stocks 
by  observing  the  simple  rule  of  buying  them  when  they  are  down 
so  low  that  nobody  appears  to  care  to  touch  them,  paying  for 
them  in  full  and  then  holding  them  for  developments  in  the 
mines,  and  it  seldom  happens  that  there  is  not  a  time  within  two 
years  when  they  can  sell  for  twice  or  three  times  the  price  origi- 
nally paid.  If  there  should  be  no  strike  in  the  mines  in  which 
they  hold  stock  there  may  be  valuable  developments  in  adjoining 
mines,  which  sends  up  the  price  of  the  stocks  of  all  the  mines  in 
the  neighborhood, 

While  work  is  being  done  in  a  mine  there  is  always  a  proba- 
bility of  something  being  found,  sooner  or  later.  When  a 
company  whose  claim  is  well  situated  on  the  lead  has  been  a 
longtime  out  of  luck  not  a  few  will  buy  stock  in  their  mine, 
because  they  consider  that  it  is  about  time  for  the  luck  of  the 
company  to  change. 

The  Mexican  silver-miners  have  an  aphorism,  in  the  infallibility 
of  which  they  have  unbounded  faith.  It  is  as  follows :  "  As 
many  days  as  you  are  in  borrasca  (barren  rock),  so  many  days 
shall  you  be  in  bonanza  " — rich  ore.  Such  faith  have  they  in 
this  maxim,  that  in  Mexico  they  frequently  go  to  work  in  a 
mine  that  has  ceased  to  be  productive  with  no  other  contract  or 
understanding  than  the  simple  one  that  they  are  to  be  allowed 
to  work  as  many  days  in  the  "  bonanza  "  as  they  spend  days  in 
finding  it.  Such  a  contract  as  this  was  once  made  on  the  Corn- 
stock  lode.  It  was  at  the  time  when  the  upper  or  first  line  of 
bonanzas  was  opened  in  the  Ophir,  Mexican,  Gould  &  Curry, 
and  other  leading  mines. 

Otto  H.  Frank  was  at  that  time  superintendent  of  the  old 
Central  mine.  He  was  anxious  to  find  a  bonanza  in  his  mine, 
but  found  only  barren  quartz  in  all  of  his  drifts  and  cross-cuts. 

Some  Mexican  miners  were  very  desirous  of  getting  into  the 
mine.  They  "  felt  it  in  their  bones "  that  they  could  find  a 
bonanza.  The  terms  they  proposed  to  Superintendent  Frank 
were  simply  these  :  "  As  many  days  as  we  are  drifting  in  search 
of  the  bonanza,  so  many  days  shall  we  be  allowed  to  extract  ore 
from  the  bonanza." 
10 


168  MR.  FRANK'S  DEVICES. 


Mr  Frank  thought  it  all  over.  He  had  failed  in  his  search 
for  a  bonanza ;  what  was  proposed  by  the  Mexicans  seemed  fair 
enough ;  he  would  let  them  try  their  luck,  anyhow,  to  get  a 
bonanza. 

So  the  bargain  was  struck  : — "  So  many  days  in  borrasca,  so 
many  days  in  bonanza." 

The  Mexicans  went  to  work  in  high  spirits.  Mr  Frank  ajso 
was  quite  cheerful,  as  he  thought  those  "knowing  cusses  "  from 
the  mines  of  Mexico  would  drift  into  a  big  body  of  ore  the  first 
week,  when  he  would  step  in  the  week  after  and  turn  them  all 
out  before  they  had  done  more  than  get  a  taste  of  the 
bonanza.  But  they  didn't  strike  it  the  first  week,  nor  the 
second,  nor  the  third.  The  fact  is  they  didn't  strike  it  the  first 
month,  nor  the  second,  nor  the  third.  Indeed,  at  the  end  of  six 
months  they  had  found  no  bonanza. 

Now  it  was  that  Superintendant  Frank  began  to  be  frightened 
— began  to  curse  all  Mexican  mining  aphorisms  and  rules  and 
regulations.  Should  the  Mexicans  now  strike  a  bonanza,  what 
kind  of  a  bonanza,  he  reasoned,  would  it  be  by  the  time  it  came 
into  his  hands  ?  In  six  months  those  Mexicans  would  have  it 
completely  skinned  and  gutted.  He  might  as  well  have  no  mine. 
He  now  began  to  suspect  that  the  fellows  knew  exactly  where 
to  drift  to  open  out  in  a  bonanza  of  vast  size  and  incalculable 
richness — probably  nearly  all  silver — but  were  only  drifting  about 
on  the  outside  of  it  in  order  to  get  more  time  inside.  He  began 
to  hate  the  very  sound  of  those  words :  "  As  many  days  as  you 
are  in  borrasca,  so  many  days  shall  you  be  in  bonanza." 

Being  greatly  worried  about  the  bargain  he  had  thoughtlessly 
made,  Mr.  Frank  went  to  see  old  man  Meer,  an  old  Castilian 
who  had  but  one  eye,  but  who  was  the  greatest  "  ore  expert " 
that  ever  set  foot  upon  the  Comstock — whose  one  eye  bored  into 
the  rock  further  and  faster  than  any  diamond  drill.  He  told 
Meer  about  the  bargain  he  had  made  and  the  fears  and  suspi- 
cions he  entertained,  asking  him  to  go  into  the  mine,  give  it  a 
thorough  examination,  and  tell  him  if  there  was  a  bonanza  any- 
where about.  Old  Meer  went  into  the  mine,  traversed  all  the 
drifts,  cross-cuts,  and  coyote-holes,  boring  into  the  rock  at  all 
points  with  that  eye  of  his. 

When  they  came  out  and  again  and  stood  upon  the  surface  at 


'NAD A  BONANZA." 


169 


the  mouth  of  the  tunnel,  in  the  broad  light  of  day,  Mr.  Frank 
turned  to  Meer  and  said  :  "  Well,  what  do  you  think  ?  " 

Meer  uttered  only  two  words,  but  those  two  words  lifted  a 
great  load  off  Mr.  Frank's  breast.  Old  Meer  simply  said :  "Nada 
bonanza,"  and  "  no  bonanza  "  it  proved. 

The  Mexicans  worked  on  for  another  week  or  two,  when  they 
became  disheartened  and  gave  up  their  contract,  and  with  it, 
doubtless,  some  portion  of  their  faith  in  their  favorite  saying : 
"  So  many  days  as  you  are  in  borrasca,  so  many  days  shall  you 
be  in  bonanza."  They  had  toiled  more  than  six  long,  weary 
months  and  the  result  was — "  nada  bonanza" 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

HOW   THE   MINES   ARE    WORKED. 

WHEN  the  upper  line  of  bonanzas  had  been  worked  out, 
and  the  shafts  were  sunk  to  greater  depths  in  search 
of  new  bodies  of  ore,  they  eventually  attained  such  a 
depth  as  brought  them  down  upon  the  barren  syenite  forming 
the  west  wall.  The  shafts  were  then  deflected  from  the  ver- 
tical and  passed  down  along  the  syenitic  foot-wall  to  the 
eastward,  in  the  shape  of  an  incline.  At  length  it  was  seen 
that  these  inclines  were  becoming  too  long  to  permit  of  their 
being  worked  through  to  advantage  with  the  machinery  then 
in  use,  and  company  after  company  moved  to  the  eastward,  a 
distance  of  a  thousand  feet  or  more,  and  then  established  a 
new  line  of  shafts,  over  which  they  set  up  new  and  more 
powerful  machinery  than  had  yet  been  seen  on  the  lead. 
These  shafts  did  not  strike  the  lead  until  they  had  been  sunk 
to  the  depth  of  one  thousand  or  one  thousand  two  hundred 
feet,  whereas  the  first  line  of  shafts  were  either  sunk  on  the 
lead,  or  at  such  a  distance  in  front  of  the  croppings  as  to  tap 
it  at  the  depth  of  from  two  to  five  hundred  feet. 

A  third  line  of  shafts  had  been  commenced  in  1875,  and  one 
of  these,  which  is  now  being  sunk  by  the  Savage,  Hale,  & 
Norcross,  and  the  Challar-Potosi  Companies  combined,  is 
nearly  a  mile  east  of  the  croppings.  This  is  intended  to  be  a 
shaft  for  all  time.  It  will  be  of  vast  size,  containing  several 
spacious  compartments  for  hoisting  and  pumping  purposes, 
and  will  be  supplied  with  the  most  powerful  machinery  that 
can  be  manufactured.  It  will  require  some  years  to  sink  this 
shaft  to  a  point  where  it  will  intersect  the  vein ;  meantime  the 

170 


HOISTING  THE  "GIRAFFE"  171 

several  companies  will  continue  to  work  through  their  pres- 
ent shafts  and  inclines. 

The  Savage  Company  are  prepared  to  sink  the  incline  of 
their  present  shaft  to  the  great  depth  of  four  thousand  feet. 
For  this  purpose  they  have  set  up  new  hoisting  machinery  of 
novel  construction  and  of  the  most  powerful  description. 
The  reel  on  which  the  hoisting-cable  winds  is  a  novelty  for 
the  first  time  introduced  on  the  Comstock  lode,  and  a  brief 
description  of  it  and  the  cable  used  upon  it  may  not  be  with- 
out interest  for  the  general  reader. 

The  reel  is  fifteen  feet  in  length,  and  at  the  larger  end  is 
twenty-two  feet  in  diameter,  while  at  the  smaller  end  the 
diameter  is  but  thirteen  feet.  It  is  suspended  upon  a  wrought 
iron  shaft  about  sixteen  inches  in  diameter,  the  ends  of  which 
revolve  in  ponderous  bearings  supported  by  foundations  of 
cut  stone  reaching  into  the  earth  to  solid  rock.  The  shell  of 
the  reel  is  covered  with  thick  wooden  staves,  and  the  whole 
somewhat  resembles  a  great  tapering  cask.  Over  the  staves 
are  securely  bolted  heavy  iron  plates  forming  a  strong  armor 
outside  of  the  wooden  structure.  In  this  iron  armor  is  a  deep 
groove  which,  starting  at  the  smaller  end  of  the  great  conical 
drum,  runs  in  a  spiral  manner  to  the  larger  end;  just  as  the 
groove  between  the  threads  of  a  screw  is  seen  to  run.  In  this 
groove  winds  the  cable  as  the  incline-car  ("giraffe")  is  let 
down  into  or  drawn  up  out  of  the  mine. 

When  the  car  is  at  the  bottom  of  the  incline,  the  greater 
part  of  the  cable  is  off  the  reel,  and  when  the  hoisting  begins 
it  is  wound  up  on  the  smaller  end  of  the  drum,  where  the 
engines  have  greater  purchase  on  the  load.  As  the  hoisting 
proceeds,  and  the  weight  to  be  raised  becomes  momentarily 
lighter,  on  account  of  the  heavy  steel  cable  being  wound  up, 
the  lifting  force  is  steadily  moved  toward  the  larger  end  of 
the  drum,  and  each  revolution  adds  to  the  swiftness  of  the 
ascent  of  the  car  that  is  being  raised.  The  cable  is  round, 
and  is  made  of  the  best  steel  wire.  It  is  4,000  feet  in  length, 
and  weighs  25,190  pounds.  The  upper  part,  for  a  distance  of 
1,500  feet  down,  is  two  inches  in  diameter;  for  the  remainder 
of  its  length,  2,000  feet,  it  gradually  tapers  till  at  the  lower 
end  its  diameter  is  one  and  three-quarter  inches.  The  taper 


172  DESERTED  SHAFTS. 


is  not  made  by  dropping  wires  in  the  several  strands  of  the 
rope,  but  by  drawing  each  wire  (as  it  is  manufactured)  slightly 
tapering  for  the  last  2,500  feet  of  its  length. 

The  incline  hoisting-works  stand  a  short  distance  from  the 
building  in  which  is  contained  the  hoisting  machinery  of  the 
vertical  shaft,  and  the  cable,  after  entering  the  latter  building 
is  carried  over  a  large  iron  pulley  or  sheave  that  is  placed 
over  the  main  shaft.  Thence  it  passes  down  a  compartment 
of  the  main  shaft  a  vertical  distance  of  1,300  feet,  when  it 
passes  under  a  second  sheave  and  continues  down  the  incline 
to  its  bottom. 

The  car  used  in  the  incline  runs  on  an  iron  track,  holds, 
about  five  tons  of  rock,  and  is  capable  of  hoisting  (easily)  from 
480  to  500  tons  per  24  hours.  The  car  is  made  wholly  of  iron 
and  steel. 

When  this  incline  car  has  been  hauled  up  as  far  as  the  bot- 
tom of  the  vertical  shaft,  that  is,  to  within  1,300  feet  of  the 
surface,  it  there  dumps  its  load  by  means  of  a  self-acting  gate 
in  its  bottom.  The  rock  thus  dumped  from  the  incline-car  is 
then  taken  in  smaller  cars  and  sent  to  the  surface  on  cages 
that  ply  up  and  down  the  hoisting-compartments  of  the  main 
vertical  shaft. 

The  engines  for  driving  the  huge  reel,  and  thus  hoisting 
this  iron  car  or  "giraffe,"  with  its  load  of  ore  and  the  25,000 
pounds  of  cable,  are  two  in  number  and  of  2oo-horse  power 
each.  A  precisely  similar  hoisting  apparatus  has  since  been 
set  up  at  the  Ophir  mine ;  indeed,  the  drawings  for  this  pow- 
erful machinery  were  first  made  for  the  Ophir  Company. 
The  length  and  weight  of  cable  at  the  Ophir  is  the  same  as 
that  in  use  at  the  Savage  mines. 

Some  of  the  old  shafts  opened  on  and  about  the  first  or 
upper  line  of  bonanzas  have  quite  gone  to  decay.  They  still 
stand,  but  the  timbers  in  many  places,  far  down  in  the  bowels 
of  the  earth,  are  racked  and  rotten ;  while  the  timbers  built  up 
in  the  mine  to  support  the  chambers  from  which  ore  was 
extracted,  and  set  up  in  the  galleries,  drifts,  cross-cuts,  and 
chutes,  millions  on  millions  of  feet  in  all,  have  quite  gone  to 
decay.  It  is  perilous  to  undertake  the  exploration  of  these 
old  worked-out  levels.  In  many  places  they  are  caved  in, 


A  REMARKABLE  SPECTACLE.  173 

every  direction,  the  old  floors  are  rotten,  water  drips  from 
above,  a  hot,  musty  atmosphere  and  almost  stifles  the  explorer, 
and  in  places,  the  air  is  so  foul  that  his  candle  is  almost  ex- 
tinguished. 

Down  in  these  deserted  and  dreary  old  levels,  hundreds  of 
feet  beneath  the  surface,  are  encountered  fungi  of  monstrous 
growth  and  most  uncouth  and  uncanny  form.  They  cover 
the  old  posts  in  great  moist,  dew-distilling  masses,  and  depend 
from  the  timbers  overhead  in  broad  slimy  curtains,  or  hang 
down  like  long  squirming  serpents  or  the  twisted  horns  of 
the  ram.  Some  of  these  take  most  fantastic  shapes,  almost 
exactly  counterfeiting  things  seen  on  the  surface.  Specimens 
of  these  are  to  be  seen  in  most  of  the  cabinets  of  curiosities 
in  Virginia  City.  Some  of  the  fungi  that  grow  up  from  the 
bottoms  of  old  disused  drifts  are  wholly  mineral  and  are 
composed  of  minute  crystals  of  such  salts  as  are  contained  in 
the  earth  from  which  they  spring. 

These  old,  decaying  places  breed  all  manner  of  gases,  some 
of  them,  as  the  firedamp  (carburetted  hydrogen  gas),  danger- 
ous to  human  life. 

One  winter  night,  in  1874,  some  of  the  residents  of  the 
western  part  of  Virginia  City  were  startled  by  seeing  what 
seemed  a  column  of  flame  fifty  or  sixty  feet  in  height,  shoot- 
ing up  from  the  mouth  of  an  old  shaft  near  the  old  upper 
works  of  the  Ophir  Company.  It  was  at  first  thought  that 
the  timbers  in  the  old  mine  were  on  fire,  and  three  or  four 
men  ran  to  the  spot  to  see  what  could  be  done  toward  smoth- 
ering the  flames.  , 

On  reaching  the  shaft,  however,  they  found  that  there  was 
no  smell  of  smoke,  and  also  that  the  supposed  fire  was  a  light 
unlike  anything  they  had  ever  before  seen,  in  its  weird  white- 
ness and  the  strange  coruscations  of  its  component  particles, 
the  light  shed  about  by  the  flame,  the  faces  of  the  men  were 
of  a  corpse-like  palor.  Their  clothing  and  hair  also  partook 
in  some  degree  of  the  same  ghastly  and  unnatural  hue.  The 
light  came  up  the  full  size  of  the  large  square  shaft,  and  seen 
at  a  distance,  as  it  rose  through  the  falling  snow,  closely 
resembled  one  of  the  shooting  spires *of  the  aurora  borealis, 
and  it  exhibited  something  of  the  same  waving  and  inconstant 
motion. 


174:  WHA  T  THE  MINERS  SA  W. 

Although  the  men  felt  creeping  over  them  a  sort  of  super- 
stitious awe,  they  still  had  sufficient  courage  to  approach  the 
shaft  and  gaze  into  it.  A  strange  sight  was  there  seen.  The 
whole  interior  of  the  shaft  seemed  to  be  at  a  white  heat,  and 
glowed  like  a  furnace.  The  timbers  on  the  sides  were  partic- 
ularly brilliant,  Each  splinter,  excrescence,  or  bit  of  fungus 
seemed  darting  dazzling  rays  that  streamed  steadily  out  in  all 
directions.  A  warm,  strange  current  of  air  ascended  from  the 
sweltering  regions  below,  and  there  was  observed  a  musty, 
sickening  smell.  All  of  those  who  looked  into  the  shaft 
afterwards  felt  a  severe  pain  in  the  temples,  and  two  or  three 
were  made  sick  at  the  stomach. 

This  strange  appearance  lasted  over  half  an  hour,  and 
before  it  ended  a  crowd  of  a  dozen  or  more  miners  returning 
from  their  work  had  collected  about  the  shaft.  The  light 
died  out  from  the  top  downwards,  and  protuberances  from 
the  sides  of  the  shaft  continued  to  glow  for  some  minutes 
after  the  light  was  no  longer  visible  at  its  top.  This  remark- 
able phenomenon  was  undoubtedly  caused  by  the  belching 
forth  of  a  highly  phosphurated  gas  of  some  kind  from  the 
deep,  underground  chambers  of  the  old  abandoned  works. 
The  rush  of  this  gas  was  probably  caused  by  an  extensive 
cave  in  a  place  where  the  timbers  had  rotted  away.  One  of 
the  men  who  witnessed  the  spectacle  was  of  the  opinion  that 
the  mingling  of  the  gas  from  the  mine  with  the  atmospheric 
air  had  something  to  do  with  intensifying  the  light.  He 
observed  in  the  ascending  current  of  pseudo-flame  myriads  of 
small  particles  of  some  substance  of  a  floss-like  texture,  which 
appeared  to  flash  and  glow  as  they  darted  upward,  and  which 
presented  in  the  general  column  of  light  much  the  same 
appearance  as  motes  moving  about  in  a  sunbeam. 

In  February,  1874,  some  miners  at  work  in  the  Utah  mine, 
just  north  of  Virginia  City,  were  all  made  temporarily  blind 
by  certain  water  or  gases  which  they  encountered.  They 
were  running  a  drift  at  the  depth  of  400  feet  to  connect  with 
some  old,  flooded  works.  When  the  end  of  the  drift  neared 
the  old  works,  the  water  they  contained  began  to  be  drained 
oif.  The  water  had  attained  a  great  height,  and  the  pressure 
was  so  strong  that  it  sent  streams  darting  and  hissing  from 


POISONED  t 


175 


every  hole  and  crevice  in  the  rock  in  which  the  drift  was 
being  run.  In  places,  these  streams  of  water  spurted  out 
with  as  much  force  as  though  they  had  been  thrown  by  a 
hydraulic  pipe. 

The  water,  or  the  steam  and  gases  from  it,  poisoned  all  who 
worked  in  the  drift.  Their  heads  and  faces  were  so  swollen 
that  their  eyes  were  closed,  and  all  were  thus  rendered  blind 
for  some  days.  A  few  years  before,  the  same  thing  occurred 
in  the  Savage  and  the  Yellow-Jacket  mines,  when  drifts  were 
run  to  tap  old  flooded  works  in  which  rotten  timbers  were 
soaking.  Quite  recently,  all  the  miners  at  work  in  the  Sutro 
Tunnel  were  poisoned,  and  had  their  eyes  closed  for  some 
days  by  the  tapping  of  a  shaft  which  had  been  filled  with 
water  for  two  or  three  years.  All  who  are  thus  poisoned 
speedily  recover  by  remaining  above  ground  for  three  or  four 
days. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

FIREDAMP. — A    MINE    IN    FLAMES. 

NO  premature  explosion  of  blasts,  crushing  in  of  timbers, 
caving  of  earth  and  rock — no  accident  of  any  kind  is  so 
much  feared  or  is  more  terrible  than  a  great  fire  in  a  large 
mine.  It  is  a  hell,  and  often  a  hell  that  contains  living,  moving, 
breathing,  and  suffering  human  beings — not  the  ethereal  and 
intangible  souls  of  men.  It  is  a  region  of  fire  and  flame,  from 
which  the  modes  of  egress  are  few  and  perilous.  A  great  fire  on 
the  surface  of  the  earth  is  a  grand  and  fearful  spectacle,  but  a 
great  fire  hundreds  of  feet  beneath  the  surface  of  the  earth  is 
terrible — terrible  beyond  measure  or  the  power  of  words  to 
express,  when  we  know  that  far  down  underneath  the  ground 
which  lies  so  calmly  on  all  sides,  giving  forth  no  sound,  are 
scores  of  human  beings  pursued  by  flames  and  gases,  scorched 
and  panting,  fleeing  into  all  manner  of  nooks  and  corners,  there 
to  meet  their  death. 

A  large  mine  in  which  are  employed  from  five  hundred  to  one 
thousand  men  is  of  itself  a  considerable  village,  though  it  be  a 
village  far  below  the  light  of  day.  In  it  are  more  timbers,  lumber, 
and  other,  combustible  matter  than  is  found  in  all  the  houses 
of  a  town  of  two  thousand  inhabitants — it  contains  millions  on 
millions  of  square  feet  of  timber — in  it  whole  forests  have  found 
a  tomb. 

Besides  being  built  up  to  a  height  of  from  one  thousand  to  one 
thousand  five  hundred  or  two  thousand  feet,  with  cribs  composed 
of  massive  timbers,  each  crib  filling  a  space  five  by  six  feet  in 
size,  there  are  floors  of  heavy  planks,  six  feet  apart,  one  above 
another,  all  the  distance  from  bottom  to  top.  In  many  places, 

176 


YELLOW-JACKET  MINE  IN  A  BLAZE.  177 

too,  the  main  timbers  are  doubled  again  and  so  filled  with  blocks 
and  wedges  and  braces  that  all  is  a  solid  mass  of  wood.  In 
numberless  places  there  are  stairs  leading  from  floor  to  floor,  and 
then  there  are  scores  of  chutes,  built  of  timber  and  lined  with 
planks,  with  verticle  winzes,  constructed  in  the  same  way,  all  of 
which,  with  the  chutes,  lead  up  through  the  floors  from  level  to 
level;  also  numerous  drifts  and  cross-cuts  supported  by  timbers 
and  walled  in  with  lagging  (split  pine-stuff  like  staves,  but 
longer),  all  of  which  serve  as  flues  to  conduct  and  spread  the 
heat  and  flames  throughout  the  mine. 

The  mines  of  the  Comstock  have  not  escaped  fires.  They 
have  not  been,  many,  but  they  have  been  fearful  as  experiences, 
and  have  cost  many  lives. 

The  first  and  most  terrible  of  these  fires  was  that  which  broke 
out  in  the  Yellow-Jacket  mine,  Gold  Hill,  about  7  o'clock  on  the 
morning  of  Wednesday,  April  7,  1869,  in  which  forty-five  men 
lost  their  lives. 

The  fire  started  at  the  8oo-foot  level  (that  is  800  feet  below 
the  surface)  at  a  point  two  hundred  feet  south  of  the  main  shaft, 
near  the  line  of  the  Kentuck  mine.  It  was  first  discpvered  at  7 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  though  it  had  no  doubt  been  burning 
longer,  as  some  of  the  miners  asserted  that  they  detected  the 
smell  of  smoke  as  early  as  3  o'clock  A.  M.  The  night  shift 
(relay)  left  at  4  A.  M.  and  the  morning  shift  began  work  at  7  A.  M.,, 
and  it  was  supposed  that  the  fire  originated  from  a  candle 
left  sticking  against  a  timber  by  men  on  the  night  shift.  From 
4  o'clock  till  7  o'clock  the  only  men  in  the  mine  were  the  car- 
men, but  before  the  danger  had  been  discovered  many  of  the 
day  shift  had  been  lowered  into  the  mines — Yellow-Jacket,.. 
Crown  Point,  and  Kentuck. 

The  first  thing  done  on  discovering  the  fire  was  to  try  to  get 
the  men  up  out  of  the  mines.  The  alarm  of  fire  was  sounded, 
and  the  fire  companies  of  Gold  Hill  and  Virginia  City  at  once 
turned  out.  % 

Pending  the  arrival  of  the  firemen  with  their  apparatus,  those 
about  the  several  mines  were  doing  all  in  their  power  to  rescue 
the  men  who  were  left  underground.  At  first  the  smoke  was  so- 
dense  that  no  one  dared  venture  into  either  of  the  shafts,  but 
about  9  o'clock  in  the  morning  it  seemed  to  draw  away  from  the 


178  A  SCENE  OF  HORROR. 

Kentuck  shaft,  and  men  descended  on  the  cage  and  recovered 
two  dead  bodies. 

At  the  Crown  Point  mine,  when  the  cage  was  being  hoisted 
for  the  last  time,  some  of  the  men  on  it  w.ere  so  far  suffocated 
as  to  fall  back  and  were  crushed  to  death  between  the  sides  of 
the  cage  and  the  timbers  of  the  shaft. 

Toward  noon  some  of  the  firemen  working  at  the  Yellow- 
Jacket  mine  ventured  down  the  shaft  to  the  8oo-foot  level  and 
and  recovered  three  or  four  bodies  of  asphyxiated  miners. 

About  the  same  time,  at  the  Crown  Point  mine,  a  cage  was 
sent  down  with  a  lighted  lantern  upon  it.  It  was  lowered  to  the 
looo-foot  level,  and  with  the  iantern  was  sent  the  following 
dispatch,  written  on  a  large  piece  of  pasteboard : 

44  We  are  fast  subduing  the  fire.  It  is  death  to  attempt  to  come  up  from 
where  you  are.  We  shall  get  you  out  soon.  The  gas  in  the  shaft  is  terrible, 
and  produces  sure  and  speedy  death.  Write  a  word  to  us  and  send  it  up  on 
the  cage,  and  let  us  know  where  you  are." 

No  answer  came  back — all  below  were  dead. 

As  soon  as  it  was  known  that  the  mines  were  on  fire,  and  that 
a  large  number  of  miners  were  imprisoned  below,  by  the  dense 
volumes  of  smoke  and  suffocating  gases  that  poured  up  through 
the  several  shafts,  the  most  intense  excitement  prevailed,  both  in 
Gold  Hill  and  Virginia  City.  The  wives,  children,  and  relatives 
of  the  lost  flocked  to  to  the  several  hoisting  works,  approaching 
as  near  to  the  mouths  of  the  shafts  as  they  were  allowed  to  come, 
and,  standing  there  on  all  sides,  their  grief  and  lamentations 
caused  tears  to  course  down  the  cheeks  of  the  most  stout- 
hearted .  "  Lost !  lost !  lost !  "  was  the  despairing  cry  constantly 
uttered  by  many  of  the  women  whose  husbands  were  below. 

The  Rev.  Father  Manogue,  a  pioneer  of  the  country,  and 
several  other  Catholic  clergymen  of  Virginia  City  and  Gold 
Hill,  moved  about  among  the  people  and  did  all  that  could  be 
done  to  comfort  and  quiet  the  weeping  women  and  children, 
but  even  the  reverend  fathers  could  find  little  to  say  in  mitiga- 
tion of  the  woes  of  such  an  occasion.  Many  of  the  poor  women, 
with  weeping  children  clinging  about  them,  stood  round  the 
shafts,  convulsively  clasping  and  wringing  their  hands,  and 
rocking  their  bodies  to  and  fro  in  excess  of  misery,  yet  uttering 
scarcely  a  word  or  a  sob — they  at  first  seemed  utterly  stupefied  and 


THE  VICTIMS.  179 


overwhelmed  by  the  suddenness  and  awfulness  of  the  calamity. 
Turn  where  they  might  there  was  no  comfort  for  them. 

At  the  Yellow-Jacket  mine  the  smoke  and  gases  drew  away  to 
the  southward,  men  descended  the  shaft,  and  all  but  one  man 
known  to  be  below  at  that  point  were  brought  up  dead. 

As  the  cage  containing  the  dead  bodies  rose  up  at  the  mouth 
of  the  shaft  there  was  heard  a  general  wail  from  the  women,  who 
could  with  difficulty  be  restrained  from  climbing  over  the  ropes 
stretched  to  keep  back  the  crowd  .  "  Oh !  God, !  who  is  it  this 
time  ?  "  Some  one  among  them  would  be  heard  to  say.  The 
dead  bodies  would  then  be  lifted  from  the  cage,  and  then  borne 
in  the  arms  of  stout  miners  and  firemen  outside  of  the  circle  of 
ropes. 

As  the  men  passed  out  with  the  dead,  the  women  would  crowd 
forward  in  an  agony  of  fear  and  suspense  to  see  the  faces.  "  Oh ! 
Patrick  !  "  one  would  be  heard  to  shriek,  when  the  bystanders 
would  be  obliged  to  seize  her  and  lead  her  away. 

At  the  Kentuck  and  Crown  Point  shafts  there  steadily  arose 
thick,  stifling  columns  of  smoke  and  pungent  gases,  generated 
by  the  burning  pine-wood  and  heated  ores  below.  No  person 
who  stood  at  the  mouth  of  either  of  these  shafts  could  entertain 
the  slightest  hope  that  anyone  of  those  in  the  mines  could  be 
alive ;  yet  wives  and  relatives  would  still  hope  against  every- 
thing. In  every  direction  almost  superhuman  exertions  were 
made  to  extinguish  the  fire. 

By  closing  up  the  shafts  and  pouring  down  water,  it  was 
thought  that  the  fire-  might  have  been  extinguished,  but  to  have 
done  so  would  have  been  equivalent  to  saying  that  all  below 
were  dead — and  would,  indeed,  have  been  death  to  any  that 
might  have  been  living — besides,  the  order  to  close  the  shafts 
would  have  drawn  from  all  present  at  all  interested  in  the  fate 
of  those  below  such  a  wail  as  no  one  would  have  cared  to  hear. 

No  one  could  enter  the  Crown  Point  or  Kentuck  shafts,  but 
that  of  the  Yellow-Jacket  being  cooler,  the  firemen  began  to 
work  their  way  down  it,  carrying  with  them  their  hose  and  bravely 
battling  with  the  fire.  A  long  string  of  hose  was  attached  to 
a  hydrant  and  carried  down  to  the  8oo-foot  level,  where  the  fight 
began.  It  was  such  work  as  few  firemen  in  the  United  States 
have  ever  undertaken,  and  such  as  none  but  firemen  in  a  mining 


180  SUBDUING  THE  FLAMES. 

country  could  have  done.  The  miners  and  firemen  battled  side 
by  side.  The  firemen  would  advance  as  far  as  possible,  extin- 
guishing the  burning  timbers,  and  when  a  cave  of  earth  and 
rock  occurred,  or  the  blackened  and  weakened  timbers  seemed 
about  to  give  way,  the  miners  would  go  to  the  front  and  make  all 
secure. 

The  walls  of  the  drifts  were  so  heated  that  it  was  very  fre- 
quently found  necessary  to  fall  back,  even  after  the  burning 
timbers  had  been  extinguished,  and  play  a  stream  on  the  rock 
in  order  to  cool  it  down.  In  places  boiling  hot  water  stood,  to 
the  depth  of  two  or  three  inches,  on  the  floors  of  the  drifts. 
Steam,  fumes  of  sulphur,  and  gases  from  the  heated  ore  and 
minerals  rendered  the  air  so  bad  that  it  became  necessary  to 
lead  in  an  air-pipe  from  the  main  blower  above,  to  enable  the 
men  to  continue  work.  When  caves  occurred,  flames  and  poison- 
ous gases  were  driven  forward  upon  the  men,  singeing  and 
partially  suffocating  them.  Their  position  was  one  of  great 
peril.  Their  only  means  of  reaching  the  surface  was  through 
the  shaft,  and  at  any  moment  an  accident  might  happen  that 
would  cut  them  off  from  this ;  or  the  draught  might  change  and 
overwhelm  them  with  stifling  gases  before  they  could  ascend  to 
the  surface. 

The  situation  below,  when  the  fire  broke  out,  was  fearful.  The 
smoke  and  gases  came  upon  the  men  so  suddenly  that,  although 
they  ran  at  once  for  the  shaft,  many  were  suffocated  and  sank 
down  by  the  way.  At  the  Crown  Point  the  men  so  crowded 
upon  the  cage  at  first  (a  cage  holds  from  twelve  to  sixteen  men.) 
that  it  was  detained  nearly  five  minutes;  the  station-tender 
being  afraid  to  give  the  signal  to  hoist  while  so  many  men  were 
in  danger  of  being  torn  to  pieces.  A  young  man  who  came  up 
on  that  cage  told  me,  that  as  they  were  finally  about  to  start,  a 
man  crawled  upon  the  cage,  and  thrusting  his  head  in  between 
his  (the  young  man's)  legs,  begged  to  be  allowed  to  remain  there 
and  go  up.  He  was  permitted  to  keep  the  place,  and  his  life 
was  saved. 

As  this  cage  started  up,  hope  left  the  hearts  of  those  remain- 
ing behind.  They  were  heard  to  throw  themselves  into  the 
shaft  and  to  fall  back  on  the  floors  of  the  mine.  Another  young 
man  told  me  that  in  rushing  toward  the  shaft,  it  occurred  to  him 


THE   WORK  OF  DESTRUCTION.  181 

that  he  might  fall  into  it — all  being  dark  below — when  he  got 
down  on  his  hands  and  knees  and  crawled,  feeling  his  way  until 
he  knew  that  he  was  at  the  shaft.  While  lying  there,  three  or 
four  men  came  running  along  from  behind,  and  pitched  headlong 
into  it,  to  their  instant  death.  At  one  lowering  of  the  cage,  a 
man  who  went  down  from  the  surface,  finding  that  there  were 
more  persons  below  than  could  be  brought  up  that  trip,  gene- 
rousJy  got  off  into  a  drift  and  put  on  board  a  young  man  who 
was  so  far  suffocated  that  he  was  unable  to  stand.  The  man 
who  did  this  was  afterwards  brought  up  unharmed. 

The  firemen  not  only  went  into  the  burning  underground 
regions  cheerfully,  but  there  was  strife  among  them  to  be  allowed 
to  go.  To  see  them  in  their  big  hats,  ascending  and  descending 
the  shafts,  as  they  relieved  each  other,  was  a  novel  sight.  It  was 
a  new  way  of  going  to  a  fire.  Although  a  stream  was  kept  play- 
ing at  the  8oo-foot  level  of  the  Yellow- Jacket  all  day,  at  9  o'clock 
at  night  it  was  found  that  the  fire  was  rising,  and  a  second  stream 
was  put  on  at  the  700. 

At  2  o'clock,  on  the  morning  of  the  8th,  thirteen  bodies  had 
been  recovered.  Some  of  these  were  found  in  the  sump  (place 
in  which  to  collect  water  at  the  bottom  of  a  shaft)  at  the  1,100- 
foot  level  where  they  had  fallen  from  stations  above,  others  were 
found  at  the  looo-foot  level,  lying  in  all  kinds  of  dispairing 
positions,  just  as  they  had  sunk  down  and  died  when  overtaken 
by  the  poisonous  gases. 

At  i  o'clock,  on  the  afternoon  of  the  8th,  twenty-three  bodies 
had  been  recovered.  When  the  fire  first  broke  out,  an  explosion 
of  gases  occurred  near  the  Crown  Point  shaft,  which  is  supposed 
to  have  killed-  several  men  in  that  direction.  Wherever  the 
stifling  gas  swept  in  upon  the  men  it  left  them  dead.  One  dead 
miner  was  found  clasping  a  ladder  with  death  grip,  his  head 
hanging  backwards.  It  was  necessary  to  lower  the  body  with  a 
rope  a  distance  of  fifty  feet  to  the  bottom  of  the  level.  On  the 
9oo-foot  level  of  the  Crown  Point  mine,  about  thirty  feet  from 
the  shaft,  nine  men  were  found  in  one  heap.  They  had  unjointed 
an  air-pipe  in  the  hope  of  being  able  to  get  enough  fresh  air  to 
keep  them  alive. 

On  the  morning  of  the  loth  it  was  evident  that  the  fire  had 
increased  to  such  an  extent  that  no  more  bodies  could  be 


182  SCENES  A  T  THE  MOUTH  OF  THE  SHAFT. 

recovered, — that  none  in  that  pit  of  fire  could  be  alive — and  at, 
ii  A.  M,  the  mouths  of  all  the  shafts  were  covered  with  planks 
wet  blankets,  and  earth.  At  noon,  steam  from  the  boilers  was 
turned  into  the  Yellow-Jacket  shaft  through  the  air-pipe  leading 
from  the  blower  (a  fan  revolving  in  a  drum,  used  in  forcing  air 
into  the  mines)  down  to  the  800  and  poo-foot  levels,  whence  it 
would  go  wherever  it  could  find  egress. 

On  the  1 2th,  a  few  more  bodies  were  found,  and  there  was  so 
much  fire  that  the  mines  were  again  closed  and  steam  forced  into 
them.  Some  of  the  bodies  last  taken  out  of  the  mines  were  so  de- 
composed, owing  to  the  great  heat  below,  that  in  order  to  handle 
them  it  was  necessary  to  roll  them  up  in  canvas  coated  with  tar. 
Several  bodies  were  in  such  a  condition  that  the  wives  and  rela- 
tives of  the  deceased  were  not  allowed  to  see  their  faces.  They 
were  told  to  remember  them  as  they  had  last  seen  them  in  life. 
One  woman  begged  hard  to  see  the  face  of  her  husband ;  then  to 
see  his  hair.  Being  shown  his  hair,  she  laid  her  hand  on  it,  and 
said:  "Good-bye,  my  husband."  As  she  turned  away,  a  little  girl 
she  was  leading  said  :  "  Can't  I  see  my  papa  ?  "  when  the  mother 
fainted. 

On  the  i4th,  at  3  o'clock  p.  M.,  steam  was  shut  off  from  the 
shafts  and  all  the  works  stopped.  Five  bodies  still  remained  in 
the  mines.  Three  days  later  the  shafts  were  opened  and  some 
explorations  made.  Spots  of  fire  were  extinguished,  where  they 
could  be  reached.  Almost  daily  they  were  able  to  get  into  some 
one  of  the  mines  and  direct  streams  of  water  upon  some  parts  of 
the  fire.  At  this  work  men  were  frequently  asphyxiated,  and 
then  it  was  necessary  to  hasten  with  them  to  the  surface.  On  the 
28th,  another  body  was  recovered,  and  on  the  29th,  efforts  were 
made  to  reach  the  bodies  (four)  still  remaining  on  the  upper 
levels  of  the  Kentuck ;  but  some  of  the  men  fell  down  insensible 
from  asphyxia,  and  the  attempt  was  abandoned. 

Thus  the  miners  struggled  with  the  fire,  until  May  2nd,  when  it 
grew  worse.  The  drifts  between  the  Yellow-Jacket  and  the 
Kentuck  and  Crown  Point  mines  were  then  closed,  and  the  shafts 
of  the  latter  mines  were  again  sealed.  The  fresh  air  thrown 
into  the  mines  by  the  blowers  was  supposed  to  have  given  the 
fire  new  life. 

On  May  1 8th,  the  Kentuck  and  the  Crown  Point  mines  were 


ON  FIRE  FOR  THREE   YEARS. 


183 


opened,  and  miners  descended  to  the  lower  levels  of  both.  On  the 
2oth  May  another  body  was  recovered  in  the  south  compartment 
of  the  the  Crown  Point  shaft,  when  it  was  found  lying  on  a 
scaffold  at  the  looo-foot  level,  leaving  three  bodies  not  yet 
found.  After  this  the  fire  again  increased  and  drove  the  men 
away  from  places  where  they  had  been  able  to  work.  May  24th, 
it  was  discovered  that  the  fire  was  on  the  8oo-foot  levels  of 
the  Crown  Point  and  Kentuck  mines,  and  the  miners  finally 
succeeded  in  walling  it  up  and  confining  it  to  this  space. 

As  late  as  June  23d,  men  were  occasionally  brought  to  the 
surface  in  an  insensible  condition,  and  the  fire  continued  to  burn 
in  that  portion  of  the  mines  to  which  it  was  confined,  for  over  a 
year.  Nearly  three  years  from  the  time  of  the  breaking  out  of 
the  fire  the  rocks  in  the  8oo-foot  levels  of  the  Crown  Point  and 
Kentuck  mines  were  found  to  be  red-hot.  Only  fragments  of 
the  skeletons  of  the  three  missing  men  were  ever  found.  Their 
bodies  were  in  those  parts  of  the  mines  that  were  walled  in  and 
given  up  to  the  flames. 


11 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

DEATH    IN    THE    MINE. 

ON  the  2oth  of  September,  1873,  about  3  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  a  second  fire  and  series  of  explosions  occurred 
in  the  Yellow- Jacket  mine,  by  which  six  men  lost  their 
lives  and  several  were  seriously  injured. 

This  fire  originated  in  a  winze  on  the  i3oo-foot  level  of  the 
mine.  The  winze  was  directly  over  the  forge  of  an  under- 
ground blacksmith's  shop,  for  which  it  served  as  a  chimney. 
The  fire  seems  to  have  been  burning  in  the  wood-work  of  this 
winze  in  a  smouldering  way,  generating  a  quantity  of  gas, 
and  when  an  assistant  blacksmith  approached  with  a  lighted 
lantern  in  his  hand,  a  heavy  explosion  occurred.  A  great 
quantity  of  smoke  rushed  up  the  main  shaft  and  hung  in  a 
black  cloud  over  the  works.  When  this  was  seen,  an  alarm 
of  fire  was  sounded  on  the  surface,  and  soon  there  were  over 
two  thousand  persons  collected  about  the  mine.  Among  the 
wives,  children,  and  relations  of  those  in  the  mines  were 
enacted  the  same  heartrending  scenes  as  on  the  occasion  of 
the  first  great  fire  in  April,  1869.  When  the  firemen  reached 
the  works,  the  fatal  mistake  was  made  of  throwing  water 
down  the  shaft,  thus  driving  the  smoke  and  gases  back  upon 
the  men  in  the  lower  levels,  and  causing  the  loss  of  life. 
This  was  stopped  by  Captain  Taylor,  superintendent  of  the 
mine,  as  soon  as  he  arrived  on  the  ground. 

About  this  time  a  man  was  sent  to  the  old  shaft  of  the  mine, 
some  distance  above  on  the  hill,  to  see  that  all  was  right  there. 
Doors  were  shut  down  over  the  mouth  of  this  shaft,  and  while 
the  man  was  looking  to  see  that  these  were  properly  closed, 

184 


EXPLOSIONS  OF  FIREDAMP.  185 

he  took  the  candle  from  his  lantern  and  held  it  over  the  shaft. 
As  he  did  so,  he  saw  a  streak  of  fire  flash  along  up  a  post  that 
stood  in  the  middle  of  the  shaft,  between  the  folding  doors. 
Thinking  that  a  quantity  of  lint  on  the  corner  of  the  post  had 
taken  fire,  he  struck  at  it  with  his  hat  to  blow  it  out.  As  he 
did  this,  an  explosion  occurred  that  shook  the  whole  town. 
A  sheet  of  flame  darted  from  the  mouth  of  the  shaft,  and  the 
man,  who  was  still  over  it,  hat  in  hand,  was  thrown  backwards 
a  distance  of  several  feet. 

This  second  explosion,  which  caused  the  solid  earth  to  rock, 
not  only  added  greatly  to  the  terror  of  those  on  the  surface, 
but  it  sent  sheets  of  flame  through  all  the  mines  as  far  as  the 
Belcher,  a  distance  of  two  thousand  feet.  Men  who  were  in 
the  Crown  Point  mine  at  the  moment,  stated  that  this  fire 
seemed  a  solid  mass  that  filled  all  the  space  about  them,  and 
that  it  flashed  toward  and  past  them  as  swiftly  as  lightning. 
At  the  same  time  the  concussion  which  accompanied  the  flash 
was  so  great  as  to  knock  them  down  and  drive  them  along 
the  ground  for  a  considerable  distance.  These  streams  of  fire 
did  not  penetrate  into  the  cross-drifts,  but  darted  straight 
southward  along  the  main  drifts  and  galleries,  owing  to  which 
fact,  doubtless,  several  miners  who  happened  to  be  in  cross- 
drifts,  escaped  being  killed  or  seriously  injured.  To  add  to 
the  terrors  of  the  situation,  all  of  the  lights  were  blown  out  by 
the  explosions,  and  the  lower  levels  of  the  mines  were  every- 
where in  total  darkness. 

Those  who  lost  their  lives  died  from  asphyxia,  while  those 
who  were  injured  were  burned  by  the  sheets  of  flame  that 
darted  through  the  several  mines.  The  fire  burned  and 
stripped  the  shirts  entirely  off  the  backs  of  some  of  the  men, 
and  those  who  were  touched  by  any  part  of  the  flame  lost 
their  whiskers,  eyebrows,  and  the  greater  part  of  their  hair. 

There  being  several  hundred  men  in  the  mines,  the  utmost 
consternation  prevailed  when  the  first  explosion  occurred, 
and  the  smell  of  smoke  and  gases — a  smell  well  remembered 
by  the  old  miners — swept  through  the  lower  levels;  but  the 
work  of  hoisting  these  men  to  the  surface  was  performed  at 
the  several  shafts  with  safety,  precision,  and  almost  lightning 
swiftness.  Notwithstanding  the  excitement  that  prevailed  all 


186  HOW  GASES  ARE  FORMED  IN  THE  MINES. 

about  them,  the  engineers  never  for  a  single  instant  lost  their 
presence  of  mind.  They  answered  every  tap  of  the  signal- 
bells  as  promptly,  and  kept  their  eyes  as  steadfastly  fixed 
upon  the  marks  on  their  cables,  as  though  nothing  were 
wrong  below.  The  cages  and  "giraffes"  were  rushed  up  and 
down  the  shafts  and  inclines  with  their  living  freight  at  a  rate 
of  speed  which  under  ordinary  circumstances  would  have 
been  simply  terrific.  But  by  no  means  was  this  work  too 
rapidly  performed  to  suit  the  men  who  were  fleeing  up  from 
the  fiery  furnace  of  the  regions  below. 

It  luckily  happened  that  the  winze  in  which  this  fire  raged 
was  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  solid  rock,  therefore  when  the 
timbers  it  contained  were  consumed,  the  fire  died  out.  The 
man  who  at  first  approached  the  smouldering  winze  with  his 
lantern,  was  found  lying  dead  at  a  distance  of  about  two  hun- 
dred feet  from  it ;  having  been  asphyxiated.  Men  who  die 
of  asphyxia  in  the  mines,  look  like  living  men  if  brought  to 
the  surface  at  any  time  within  a  few  hours  after  life  is  extinct. 
Their  cheeks  are  flushed  and  roseate,  and  their  bodies  are  as 
limp  as  though  they  were  still  alive.  With  their  eyes  closed, 
they  appear  to  be  men  in  a  fever,  lying  in  a  sound  sleep.  It 
is  a  painless  death.  Several  miners  who  were  brought  to  the 
surface  in  an  unconscious  state,  and  who  would  no  doubt 
have  died  in  a  few  minutes  had  they  been  left  in  the  mine, 
assert  that  a  sensation  of  faintness  was  all  they  experienced, 
they  did  not  even  remember  falling  to  the  ground ;  but  all 
are  very  sick  after  regaining  their  senses. 

As  it  would  have  been  impossible  for  the  small  fire  in  the 
winze  to  have  generated  such  immense  quantities  of  inflam- 
mable gases  as  must  have  been  consumed  in  the  two  explo- 
sions that  occurred  during  this  last  fire  in  the  Yellow- Jacket 
mine,  many  men  are  of  the  opinion  that  a  small  quantity  of 
the  gas  from  pine-wood  mingled  with  gases  already  in  the 
mines,  rendered  the  whole  explosive.  In  this  instance  some 
such  accidental  compound  must  have  been  formed.  Common 
air  being  mingled  with  the  gases  probably  had  much  to  do 
with  causing  the  explosions. 

On  the  morning  of  May  24th,  1874,  the  hoisting  works  of 
the  Succor  Mining  Company,  near  Silver  City,  were  destroyed 


SEARCHING  FOR  THE  DEAD.  187 

by  fire,  and  two  miners  who  were  at  work  in  the  shaft  at  the 
time,  lost  their  lives.  The  fire  was  kindled  by  some  cartridges 
of  giant-powder  that  had  been  left  lying  on  the  boiler.  The 
cartridges  did  not  explode,  but  simply  burned.  They  were 
about  a  dozen  in  number,  enough  to  have  blown  the  works  to 
atoms,  had  they  exploded.  They  burned-very  rapidly,  throw- 
ing up  a  fountain  of  fire.  The  flames  were  intensely  bright, 
and  wherever  the  jets  struck  they  set  fire  to  the  wood-work. 
The  roof  and  all  that  part  of  the  works  about  the  boilers  were 
on  fire  in  an  instant. 

The  only  men  in  the  works  were  the  engineer  and  the  car- 
man. Two  miners  were  at  work  at  the  bottom  of  the  shaft, 
five  hundred  feet  below  the  surface.  The  engineer  and  carman 
shook  the  cable  attached  to  the  hoisting  tub,  which  was  at  the 
bottom  of  the  shaft,  as  a  signal  for  the  men  below  to  come  up ; 
also,  shouted  to  them,  but  could  not  make  them  understand 
their  danger.  Soon  the  two  men  were  driven  out  of  the  build- 
ing, which  was  speedily  consumed. 

Two  days  later,  when  the  fire  in  the  timbers  of  the  upper 
part  of  the  shaft  had  been  extinguished,  a  windlass  was  rigged 
and  men  were  lowered  to  see  how  things  looked  below.  It 
was  not  expected  that  the  bodies  of  the  dead  miners  would  be 
found,  as  much  earth  had  caved  from  the  top  of  the  shaft,  and 
its  bottom  was  supposed  to  be  filled  to  the  depth  of  twenty  or 
thirty  feet  with  broken  timbers,  rocks,  and  earth.  Contrary  to 
the  general  expectation,  the  men  had  not  been  lowered  a 
great  distance  into  the  shaft  before  they  signalled  those  above 
to  stop ;  they  then  shouted  up  the  shaft  that  the  bodies  were 
found.  A  large  crowd  had  collected  about  the  shaft,  and  when 
this  unexpected  report  came  up,  the  excitement  was  great. 

The  bodies  of  the  poor  fellows  were  discovered  at  the  pump 
station — a  recess  some  feet  square  in  one  side  of  the  shaft — to 
which  point  they  had  ascended  by  almost  superhuman  exer- 
tions. This  pump  station  was  two  hundred  and  sixty-five 
feet  above  the  bottom  of  the  shaft,  and  the  whole  of  this 
great  distance  the  men  had  climbed  in  their  desperate  strug- 
gle for  life,  with  nothing  to  cling  to  but  the  slight  cracks 
between  the  timbers  walling  the  sides.  Considering  the  small 
and  uncertain  hold  afforded  by  the  timbers  of  the  shaft,  their 


188  CARELESSNESS  OF  THE  MINERS. 

t-____ £ 

climbing  to  such  a  height  was  a  feat  bordering  on  the  miracu- 
lous, and  one  which  could  only  have  been  performed  by  young 
and  active  men,  as  both  were.  Both  men  had  died  from  as- 
phyxia. Neither  their  bodies  nor  their  clothing  were  scorched. 

In  the  pump  station  they  were  protected  from  the  falling 
brands  and  beams  from  the  burning  building,  and  there  they 
had  remained  till  suffocated  by  the  deadly  gases  that  settled 
down  into  the  shaft.  The  face  of  one  of  the  men  was  rosy 
and  as  natural  as  in  life,  while  that  of  the  other,  who  lay  in 
the  outer  part  of  the  station,  was  black  and  frightfully  swollen. 

An  inquest  was  held,  and  the  verdict  of  the  Coroner's  jury 
was  that  the  men  who  lost  their  lives  by  the  fire,  James  Bil- 
lings and  James  Rickard 

"  came  to  their  death  by  suffocation  caused  by  the  burning  of  the  Succor 
hoisting-works  and  part  of  the  shaft,  said  fire  having  been  caused  by  the 
combustion  of  giant-powder  which  was  kept  on  the  top  of  one  of  the  boilers, 
and  we  strongly  deprecate  the  custom  prevalent  in  many  mines  of  keeping 
giant-powder  on  the  boilers  about  the  works." 

And  well  they  might  find  fault  with  this  practice  of  cooking 
giant-powder  on  the  tops  of  boilers ;  also,  they  might  mildly 
suggest  that  the  custom  of  thawing  frozen  giant-powder  and 
nitro-glycerine  on  stoves  and  at  the  forges  of  blacksmith's 
shops  is  a  thing  not  to  be  encouraged.  Several,  however, 
have  prospected  about  until  they  have  found  this  out  for 
themselves.  It  is  now  probably  well  known  in  the  other 
world,  as  a  few  of  those  best  informed  on  the  point  have  gone 
there. 


OFFICE  OF  THE  CONSOLIDATED  VIRGINIA.  MINE. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

DESTRUCTION   OF   THE   BELCHER   SHAFT. 

ABOUT  2  o'clock,  on  the  afternoon  of  October  30,  1874, 
the  air  shaft  of  the  Belcher  mine  took  fire  and  was  totally 
destroyed.  The  shaft  was  not  completed  at  the  time  of 
the  accident,  but  went  down  to  a  depth  of  1000  feet  below  the 
surface.  It  was  twelve  by  six  feet  in  width,  divided  into  two 
compartments,  and  substantially  timbered  from  top  to  bottom. 
It  had  cost  between  $30,000  and  840,000,  and  was  designed  to 
ventilate  and  cool  the  lower  levels  of  the  mines — those  at  the 
depth  of  1500  and  1600  feet. 

As  soon  as  the  fire  was  discovered,  the  miners  working  below 
were  notified,  and  all  were  safely  hoisted  out  of  the  mine.  It 
being  found  impossible  to  save  the  shaft,  all  connection  between 
it  and  other  parts  of  the  mine  was  cut  off  and  the  fire  allowed 
to  have  its  way. 

The  fire  was  first  discovered  by  persons  down  in  the  mine, 
but  it  soon  made  itself  manifest  on  the  surface,  in  the  dense 
volume  of  smoke  of  inky  blackness  that  rose  from  the  mouth 
of  the  shaft  and  ascended  to  a  perpendicular  height  of  three  or 
four  hundred  feet.  This  large  column  of  smoke  was  one  of  the 
grandest  sights  imaginable.  The  air  was  perfectly  calm,  and  the 
smoke  assumed  the  form  of  huge  balloons  rolling  upward,  one 
over  the  other.  This  ominous  cloud  of  smoke  was  visible  for 
many  miles  in  all  directions  and  filled  the  hearts  of  all  beholders 
with  terror.  The  steam-whistle  at  the  Belcher  hoisting  works, 
near  at  hand,  sent  forth  its  long-drawn  wail — the  fire  signal — as 
soon  as  the  first  black  puffs  of  smoke  rose  above  the  surface  of 
the  ground.  Instantly,  the  whistles  of  dozens  of  mills  and  hoist 
ing  works  joined  in,  and  the  whole  air  was  rent  for  half  an  hour 

191 


192  PROGRESS  OF  THE  FLAMES. 

with  their  steady  unceasing  shrieks.  All  who  saw  the  awful  pall 
of  smoke  rise  up  and  hang  over  the  mine,  feared  the  worst,  and 
all  who  had  husbands,  fathers,  brothers,  or  friends  at  work  in  the 
Belcher,  hastened  to  the  mine. 

Firemen  from  Gold  Hill  and  Virginia,  with  steamers  and  hand- 
engines,  soon  swarmed  the  place,  but  were  not  allowed  to  throw 
water  into  the  shaft — the  effects  of  this  had  been  seen  at  the 
last  fire  in  the  Yellow-Jacket  mine.  There  were  houses  to  save, 
all  about  the  shaft,  and  to  this  work  the  attention  of  the  firemen 
was  turned.  To  attempt  to  describe  the  wretchedness  and 
despair  of  the  women  and  children  gathered  round  the  shaft 
and  looking  upon  the  awful  column  of  smoke,  would  be  futile, 
and  to  the  imagination  of  the  reader  may  be  left  their  joy  on 
being  told  that  all  who  had  been  in  the  mine  were  safe  upon 
the  surface. 

After  the  great  column  of  smoke  had  rolled  upward  from  the 
mouth  of  the  shaft  for  twenty  minutes  or  more,  and  when  a 
great  crowd  was  collected  about  the  spot,  there  came  a  flash,  as 
of  lightning,  there  was  a  dull,  heavy  report,  which  was  heard  at 
the  distance  of  a  mile,  and  a  sheet  of  flame  shot  upward  to  the 
height  of  nearly  five  hundred  feet. 

Instantly,  the  dark  column  of  smoke  was  gone — was  consumed 
in  the  tall  pillar  of  fire.  The  flame  then  gradually  fell  back  to 
a  height  of  about  sixty  feet,  and  to  this  height  it  continued  to  rush 
for  over  an  hour,  with  a  roar  that  could  be  heard  at  the  distance 
of  half  a  mile.  Pieces  of  flaming  wood  and  live  coals  larger 
than  a  man's  hand,  were  shot  sixty  feet  into  the  air,  and  fell  in 
such  showers  that  they  covered  the  ground  on  all  sides  and 
rolled  by  bushels  from  the  roofs  of  buildings  in  the  neighbor- 
hood. At  a  distance  the  burning  shaft  bore  a  striking  resem- 
blance to  an  active  volcano.  The  draught  through  it  was  the  same 
that  would  be  seen  on  the  surface,  in  a  burning  chimney  a 
thousand  feet  in  height. 

At  this  critical  juncture  it  was  decided  to  go  below  and  close 
all  of  the  drifts  leading  from  the  burning  shaft.  The  main 
hoisting  shaft  and  works  stood  at  a  distance  of  one  hundred 
yards  from  the  air-shaft,  and  in  the  buildings  at  this  point  were, 
collected  the  miners  who  had  just  escaped  from  the  lower  levels. 
Showers  of  live  coals  were  falling  upon  the  roofs  of  all  the 


DESCENDING  THE  BURNING  SHAFT.  193 

buildings  about  and  over  the  main  working  shaft,  and  a  score  of 
men  engaged  in  pouring  water  over  them  could  hardly  prevent 
them  from  taking  fire.  In  the  hoisting  works  the  engineers  stood 
at  their  posts  awaiting  orders.  A  rope  had  been  stretched  about 
the  mouth  of  the  main  shaft  to  keep  back  the  crowd,  and  within 
the  circle  of  this  rope  stood  thirty  or  forty  miners,  also  awaiting 
orders.  The  cage  was  below  with  two  or  three  officers  of  the 
mine,  who  had  gone  down  to  ascertain  the  situation  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  bottom  of  the  burning  shaft.  All  were 
anxiously  awaiting  some  news  from  these  men,  as  'since  the 
escape  of  the  miners  from  the  lower  levels,  they  were  the  first 
who  had  ventured  back  into  the  underground  regions. 

Presently  a  cage — a  three-decker — came  up  and  stopped  at 
the  mouth  of  the  shaft.  On  its  lower  deck  stood  an  under- 
ground foreman.  As  the  cage  stopped,  this  official  said:  "I 
want  eighteen  men  to  go  down  to  the  looo-foot  level  with  me." 
The  men  knew  that  on  the  level  mentioned  was  the  bottom  of 
the  perpendicular  portion  of  the  burning  air-shaft,  but  they  did 
not  know  the  situation  at  that  point,  nor  did  they  know  what 
they  would  be  asked  to  do  on  arriving  at  their  destination.  Yet 
no  sooner  had  the  call  for  volunteers  been  made  than  there  was 
a  rush  of  men  to  the  cage. 

The  lower  compartment  was  instantly  filled.  The  engineer, 
who  stood  with  his  hand  on  the  lever  of  his  engine,  dropped  the 
cage  till  the  second  compartment  stood  level  with  the  floor,  and 
this  had  no  sooner  been  done  than  it  was  filled  with  men.  The 
same  was  the  case  when  the  last  compartment  came  down; 
indeed  there  was  a  quiet  struggle  among  the  men  for  a  place 
on  the  cage,  though  few  words  were  spoken.  As  the  six  men 
were  taking  their  places  on  the  last  section  of  the  cage,  a  young 
man  pulled  one  of  them  off,  and  took  his  place,  saying :  *'  No, 
John,  you've  got  a  family." 

The  men  were  all  brave,  determined-looking  fellows.  The 
faces  of  all  were  calm  and  firm — not  a  cheek  was  pale.  While 
the  men  were  filling  the  cage,  as  it  hung  in  the  mouth  of  the 
shaft.  I  said  to  a  friend,  "Those  are  all  fine,  brave  men. 
See !  with  what  nerve  they  step  upon  that  cage  to  go  down  into 
the  burning  mine !  It  may  be  that  some  of  those  men  will  never 
reach  the  surface  alive,  yet  not  one  shows  a  sign  of  fear." 


194:  DANGER! 


"Very  true,"  said  my  friend,  "but  I  don't  think  there  is  any 
real  danger  down  there.  The  fire  is  confined  to  the  air-shaft, 
all  around  it  is  safe  enough." 

"  Men  never  go  into  a  mine  at  any  time,"  said  I,  "  but  they 
are  in  danger ;  and  when  there  is  anything  wrong  in  a  mine  the 
danger  is  vastly  increased — particularly  when  there  is  a  fire  in 
any  of  the  lower  levels." 

"  Well,  but  what  can  happen  to  these  men  ?  "  asked  the  gentle- 
man. 

"  These  men,"  said  I,  "  will  probably  come  out  all  right,  if  no 
cave  shall  occur  in  the  burning  shaft  while  they  are  below ; 
but  it  will  now  soon  be  time  for  the  caving  to  begin.  The 
timbers  must  soon  begin  to  weaken." 

"  Well,  what  would  be  the  result  of  a  cave  in  the  shaft  ?  " 

"  It  would  close  up  the  shaft  and  suddenly  send  poisonous 
gases  through  the  lower  levels." 

Leaving  the  shaft  and  the  works,  soon  after  the  men  had  de- 
scended on  their  dangerous  mission,  1000  feet  below  the  surface 
of  the  earth,  we  returned  to  the  town  of  Gold  Hill. 

As  we  entered  the  main  street  of  the  town,  we  turned  and 
looked  in  the  direction  of  the  burning  shaft,  half  a  mile  away. 
No  sign  of  flame  was  visible,  but  there  rolled  up  from  the  mouth 
of  the  shaft  a  great  inky  cloud  of  smoke. 

"See!  "  cried  my  companion,  "the  fire  has  gone  out!  It  is 
all  smoke  now !  " 

"  There  has  been  a  cave  in  the  shaft !  "  said  I,  and  in  less 
than  half  a  minute  the  column  of  flame  again  darted  into  the  air 
to  the  height  of  sixty  or  eighty  feet,  and  instantly  all  the  smoke 
disappeared. 

Now  let  us  see  what  happened  in  the  mine  at  that  time. 
After  the  fire  broke  out  in  the  air-shaft,  the  draught,  which  had 
always  before  been  downward  into  the  mine  (contrary  to  the 
general  expectation  when  it  was  made),  changed,  and  rushed 
fiercely  upwards.  The  draught  in  the  main  shaft  at  the  hoisting 
works,  one  hundred  yards  distant,  which  had  before  been  up- 
ward, was  instantly  changed,  and  in  it  there  was  found  a  strong 
downward  suction.  This  allowed  the  men  who  went  below  to 
approach  quite  near  to  the  bottom  of  the  burning  shaft.  They 
were  set  to  work  at  tearing  out  the  woodwork  and  pulling  up  the 


A  CA  VE  IN  THE  SHAFT.  195 

car-tracks  in  a  drift  connecting  with  the  air-shaft  at  the  1000- 
foot  level,  preparatory  to  filling  it  with  a  bulkhead  of  rocks  and 
earth,  in  order  to  cut  off  its  connection  with  other  parts  of  the 
mine. 

While  they  were  at  this  work  the  cave  occurred  in  the  shaft. 
When  the  mass  of  rocks  and  earth  composing  the  cave  fell  down 
through  the  shaft — perhaps  a  distance  of  five  hundred  feet- 
it  forced  back,  down  into  the  mine,  and  out  through  the  drift 
in  which  the  miners  were  at  work,  a  vast  tongue  of  flame  as 
fierce  as  that  from  a  blow-pipe — forced  back  upon  the  men  all 
the  heat  and  flame  there  was  in  the  lower  part  of  the  shaft  when 
it  fell. 

This  deluge  of  fire  lasted  but  the  fraction  of  a  minute,  when  it 
was  all  sucked  back  into  the  shaft  by  the  draught,  but  while  it 
lasted  it  was  fierce  as  the  flames  of  a  furnace.  The  men  work- 
ing in  the  drift  were  naked  from  the  waist  upwards,  and  below 
wore  nothing  but  cotton  overalls.  In  a  moment  the  flames  were 
upon  them,  and  all  were  terribly  burned,  notwithstanding  that 
they  threw  themselves  flat  upon  the  ground.  In  some  instances 
their  overalls  were  licked  from  their  bodies — turned  to  ashes  in 
an  instant. 

Nine  of  the  eighteen  men  we  saw  so  bravely  descend  into  the 
burning  mine  were  hoisted  out,  scarred  and  crisped ;  their  clothes 
burnt  from  their  bodies,  and  the  skin  peeling  off  in  great  flakes, 
wherever  they  were  touched.  One  man  was  brought  up  dead. 
He  was  not  found  till  the  next  day,  when  his  dead  body  was 
discovered  at  the  bottom  of  a  winze  into  which  he  had  fallen 
while  fleeing  before  the  flames.  All  of  those  burned  finally 
recovered,  but  several  not  for  many  weeks.  When  the  first  squad 
of  men  was  disabled,  others  bravely  took  their  place  in  the 
drift,  and  finally  succeeded  in  completing  a  substantial  bulk- 
head ;  thus  saving  the  mine.  Though  several  caves  occurred  and 
drove  them  from  their  work,  none  were  so  disastrous  as  the  first 
— the  mass  of  rock  in  the  bottom  of  the  shaft  doubtless  prevent- 
ing a  free  outpouring  of  flame. 

Although  this  fire  occurred  in  October,  1874,  in  May,  1875, 
when  a  new  shaft  was  being  constructed,  great  masses  of  rocks, 
still  almost  at  a  white  heat  were  encountered  by  the  workmen. 
These  lay  at  the  bottom  of  the  old  shaft,  and  there  was  no  burning 


196 


A    WARM  COMPARISON. 


timber,  charcoal,  or  fire  among  them,  but  they  were  so  hot  as  to 
set  on  fire  the  timbers  the  miners  were  trying  to  set  up  in  the 
drift  run  by  them,  and  in  order  to  work  at  all  it  was  found 
necessary  to  carry  a  line  of  hose  into  the  place  and  play  a  stream 
of  water  upon  the  rocks. 

When  we  find  so  small  a  mass  of  rocks  as  can  be  contained  in 
the  bottom  of  a  shaft,  remaining  red-hot  for  eight  months,  should 
we  be  incredulous  on  being  assured  by  men  of  science  that  the 
centre  of  the  earth,  once  a  molten  mass  of  rock,  still  remains 
in  a  molten  state  after  untold  ages  ? 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

WAR  IN   THE  MINE. 

LITTLE  difficulty  has  ever  been  experienced  from  fire- 
damp, in  the  mines  along  the  Comstock  lode.    Firedamp 
is  a  gas  which  is  more  frequently  generated  in,  and  more 
strictly  confined  to,  coal  mines  than  to  any  others ;  yet  in  a 
few  instances  it  has  been  found  to  exist  in  mines  on  the 
Comstock.     It  is  probably  generated  by  decaying  pine-timber. 

On  one  occasion,  a  mining  superintendent  of  Gold  Hill 
went  into  an  old  drift  of  the  Segregated  Belcher  mine,  and 
while  passing  along  it,  happened  to  lift  his  candle  to  its  roof, 
to  examine  the  rock.  Much  to  his  astonishment,  he  set  fire 
to  a  stratum  of  carburetted  hydrogen  (firedamp),  which  pro- 
duced a  brilliant  flash  that  extended  the  whole  length  of  the 
drift.  Some  miners  working  in  the  Gould  &  Curry  mine  on 
one  occasion  had  a  similar,  but  much  more  lively,  bit  of 
experience.  On  tapping  an  old  drift  in  that  mine  quite  an  ex- 
plosion occurred,  though  no  harm  was  done,  further  than  the 
singeing  of  the  hair  and  whiskers  of  the  astonished  miners. 

In  the  early  days  of  Washoe  it  occasionally  happened  that 
adjoining  mining  companies  drifted  into  each  other's  works, 
far  below  the  surface.  On  such  occasions  there  was  war 
down  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth.  In  case  pistols  and  similar 
weapons  were  not  used,  the  battles  were  fought  after  the  Chi- 
nese stink-pot  plan.  Each  company  sought  to  smoke  the  other 
out.  The  latest  instance  in  which  these  underground  ameni- 
ties of  the  amiable  miner  were  indulged  in,  was  in  May,  1874, 
when  the  Kossuth  and  the  Alhambra  folks  ceased  to  admire 
each  other. 

197 


198  SMOKING  OUT  THE  ENEMY. 

The  works  of  the  two  companies  made  an  unexpected  con- 
nection several  feet  below  the  surface.  As  to  what  passages 
at  arms  may  have  occurred  in  and  about  the  breach  below 
when  it  was  first  opened,  those  of  the  surface  world  are  not 
informed.  However,  the  Alhambra  folks  presently  smelt 
something  burning.  They  were  not  long  in  doubt  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  fumigation.  The  odor  wafted  to  them  was  not 
that  of  sandal-wood,  neither  of  frankincense  nor  myrrh.  That 
which  reached  them  was  the  hot,  pungent,  stifling  smoke  and 
gas  that  told  of  burning  pitch-pine.  The  Kossuth  folks  had 
secretly  prepared  and  lighted  in  a  drift  of  their  mine,  connect- 
ing with  the  Alhambra  shaft,  a  large  bonfire  of  pine-wood. 
There  being  a  draught  into  and  up  the  shaft  named,  the  men 
working  therein  soon  found  themselves  in  danger  of  suffoca- 
tion, and  made  all  possible  haste  to  reach  the  surface. 

The  superintendent  of  the  Alhambra  mine  narrowly  escaped 
losing  his  life.  When  he  was  hoisted  to  the  top  of  the  shaft, 
some  hundreds  of  feet,  he  was  asphyxiated  to  the  verge  of 
insensibility,  and  fell  back,  but  luckily  caught  at  the  edge  of 
some  planks  and  held  on  long  enough  to  give  those  standing 
near  time  to  snatch  him  away.  Had  he  fallen  to  the  bottom 
of  the  shaft,  it  would  have  been  certain  death,  for  had  he  not 
been  dashed  to  pieces  by  the  fall,  the  smoke  and  gases  ascend- 
ing the  shaft  would  have  prevented  his  friends  from  going 
down  to  his  assistance,  and  he  must  have  inevitably  perished. 

Turning  the  tables  on  the  Kossuthites  was  now  tried  by  the 
men  of  the  Alhambra.  They  covered  the  mouth  of  their  shaft 
with  planks  and  wet  blankets,  in  order,  if  possible,  to  force 
the  smoke  back  into  the  Kossuth  mine.  The  smoke  still 
appearing  to  gather  in  their  shaft,  several  large  casks  of  water 
were  got  in  readiness,  the  planks  and  blankets  were  raised, 
and  a  flood  of  water  turned  suddenly  down.  To  what  extent 
this  experiment  discommoded  the  Kossuthites  was  never  made 
public,  but  the  indications  were  that  they  received  at  least  a 
temporary  hoist  from  their  own  petard,  as,  shortly  after,  their 
numbers  above  ground  were  observed  to  have  increased. 

During  the  war,  a  deserter  came  over  to  the  Alhambra  side 
and  informed  them  that  he  had  been  ordered  to  drill  a  hole 
under  the  bottom  of  their  shaft,  charge  it  with  giant-powder, 


CA  USES  OF  FEAR.  199 


and  blow  them  all  to  the  lower  levels  of  Lucifer's  brimstone 
pit,  when  they  came  to  work  in  the  morning.  Rather  than 
become  a  second  Guy  Fawkes,  the  man  threw  up  his  situation ; 
at  least  this  was  his  story.  The  Kossuth  folks  caused  to  be 
published  a  statement  of  the  affair,  in  which  it  was  said  that 
their  foreman  was  a  second  Uncle  Toby — he  wouldn't  harm  a 
fly.  As  for  the  smoking  business,  they  had  explained  to  the 
Alhambra  folks  the  fact  that  they  were  about  to  kindle  a  little 
fire  to  dry  their  drift,  and  had  told  them  that  in  case  they 
found  the  smoke  disagreeable,  they  could  "go  aloft." 

There  is  nothing  so  much  dreaded  by  the  miner  as  fire. 
When  millions  of  tons  of  rock  begin  to  settle  down  he  is  not 
frightened.  He  goes  among  them  when  they  are  being  splint- 
ered in  all  directions  and  are  cracking  like  pistols;  coolly 
puts  in  double  timbers  and  braces,  drives  wedges,  and  builds 
up  sections  with  rock,  for  he  knows  that  the  settling  must  be 
gradual,  and  that  if  it  is  not  stopped  it  can  only  continue  till 
all  the  timbers  in  the  place  are  pressed  out  as  thin  as  wafers 
— shortly  before  which  time  he  will  depart.  When  caves  of 
ore  fall  from  the  breasts  in  a  stope,  he  knows  that  they  only 
endanger  the  few  men  who  happen  to  be  under  or  near  them. 
When  the  premature  explosion  of  a  blast  occurs,  only  those  in 
the  immediate  vicinity  are  killed  or  wounded.  But  when 
there  is  a  fire  in  a  mine,  the  life  of  every  man  is  in  peril. 

One  great  reason  why  a  fire  in  a  mine  is  so  much  dreaded, 
is  because  there  are  so  few  avenues  of  escape  open  to  the 
miner.  Probably  there  is  but  a  single  shaft  (if  the  mine  is 
connected  with  no  other)  and  up  this,  a  thousand  or  fifteen 
hundred  feet,  he  must  go  to  escape.  The  smoke  and  deadly 
gases  may  reach  the  shaft  before  he  arrives,  and  then  he  can 
but  sit  down  and  await  his  death.  In  case  of  a  fire,  there  is 
liable  to  be  a  panic.  A  panic  in  a  church  or  other  building 
on  the  surface  is  always  a  terrible  thing ;  then  what  must  be 
a  panic  in  a  mine  where  there  are  eight  hundred  or  one 
thousand  men,  perhaps,  all  to  go  up  a  single  shaft  a  thousand 
feet,  a  cage-load  at  a  time?  At  such  times,  too,  there  are 
explosions  of  gases  which  extinguish  all  of  the  lights,  and  the 
men  rushing  to  and  fro  are  exposed  to  the  danger  of  tumbling 
headlong  into  scores  of  pitfalls  in  the  shape  of  chutes,  winzes, 
and  other  excavations. 


200  BURNT  RAGS. 


All  these  things  being  often  in  the  miner's  mind  give  him 
a  wonderful  delicacy  of  nostril.  He  can  scent  a  fire  afar.  He 
knows  the  smell  of  burning  fuse,  of  giant-powder,  of  black 
powder  and  of  everything  with  which  fire  ordinarily  comes  in 
contact  in  a  mine,  and  the  scent  of  these  are  no  more  noticed 
than  is  noticed  the  air  he  breathes  on  the  surface  of  the  earth ; 
but  let  any  unusual  substance  be  ignited  and,  like  the  hunted 
stag,  his  nose  is  in  the  air  at  once.  Let  but  a  splinter  of  pine 
be  held  in  a  candle,  and  soon  the  smell  of  the  burning  wood 
is  detected  by  the  miners  above  and  around,  and  there  is  a 
commotion  such  as  is  seen  when  a  hive  of  bees  is  disturbed — 
men  drop  down  from,  and  rush  out  of,  all  manner  of  places 
where  no  men  were  seen  before.  A  bit  of  burning  rag  or 
anything  of  that  nature  creates  uneasiness. 

On  one  occasion,  I  was  in  the  i5oo-foot  level  of  the  Consol- 
idated Virginia  mine  when  a  gentleman  from  San  Francisco 
was  getting  some  samples  of  ore.  These  he  tied  up  in  small 
sacks.  When  he  tied  up  the  first  he  found  that  he  had  left  his 
knife  above,  in  changing  his  clothes.  Having  no  knife  with 
which  to  cut  the  string  he  had  tied  about  the  sack,  he  held  it 
in  the  flame  of  a  candle  and  burnt  it  off.  The  string  was  of 
cotton,  and  a  length  of  about  two  inches  was  consumed  in  all. 
In  less  than  a  minute  afterwards  a  man  from  some  part  of  the 
mine  hastily  approached,  and  said  to  the  underground  foreman, 

"What  is  burning?" 

"  Is  there  anything  burning  ? "  inquired  the  foreman,  giving 
us  a  wink. 

"  Yes,  sir ;  there  is  something  burning  in  this  part  of  the 
mine." 

"What  makes  you  thinks  so?  " 

"  Well,  I  smell  it.  It's  cotton  rags  or  something  of  that 
kind." 

The  foreman  then  showed  the  man  the  cotton  string  that 
had  been  burned  off,  and  he  left,  giving  the  San  Francisco 
man  a  sour  look  as  he  departed.  Even  a  dead  rat  in  any 
close  or  heated  part  of  the  mine  annoys  the  men,  and  is 
speedily  scented  out  and  sent  above.  So  with  everything  else 
from  which  there  can  arise  the  slightest  effluvium. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

A    CHAPTER   OF    ACCIDENTS. 

ACCIDENTS  are  of  constant  occurrence  in  mines  in  every 
part  of  the  world,  and  the  mines  on  the  Comstock  lode 
enjoy  no  immunity  from  what  appears  to  be  the  common 
lot  or  prevalent  fatality,  in  this  respect.      Accidents  of  every 
imaginable  kind  have  occurred  since  the  opening  of  the  first 
mine  on  the  Comstock,  still  occur,  and  will  continue  to  occur  so 
long  as  a  mine  on  the  lode  is  worked. 

In  the  early  days,  when  the  miners  worked  in  a  primitive  way 
with  a  hand-windlass,  and  sunk  a  small  round  shaft  resembling 
an  ordinary  well,  they  quite  as  frequently  broke  legs,  arms,  and 
ribs,  or  were  instantly  killed,  as  at  the  present  day.  Though 
men  were  working  in  that  which  was  but  a  straight  round  hole, 
only  fifty  or  a  hundred  feet  in  depth,  they  were  still  able  to 
injure  themselves  in  many  ways.  They  fell  out  of  buckets,  or 
the  crank  of  a  windlass  was  broken,  and  they  went  back  to  the 
bottom  of  the  shaft  "  by  the  run  ;  "  a  blast  exploded  while  they 
were  yet  standing  over  it ;  rocks  fell  out  of  the  walls  of  their 
untimbered  shafts ;  or  dropped  from  a  bucket  as  it  was  being 
landed  at  the  top  of  the  shaft — in  short,  they  were  maimed  and 
killed  in  ways  innumerable  and  past  finding  out  until  the  thing 
had  happened. 

At  the  present  day,  with  all  manner  of  safety  apparatus,  and 
every  avenue  to  accident  seemingly  thoroughly  guarded,  men 
are  wounded  and  killed  the  same  as  before.  They  are  con- 
stantly being  hurt  and  killed  in  new  and  unheard-of  ways — in 
fact,  in  every  way  imaginable.  It  is  a  saying  in  the  mines,  that 
these  accidents  run  in  streaks ;  that  they  occur  in  groups.  When 
12  201 


202  THE  ADVENTURE  OF  FOUR  MINERS. 

two  or  three  accidents  have  happened  within  as  many  days,  you 
will  hear  the  miners  say :  "  Now,  look  out,  we  are  going  to  have 
a  regular  run  of  accidents !  "  and  so  it  generally  turns  out. 
There  will  often  be  a  dozen  accidents  within  a  fortnight,  half  of 
them,  perhaps,  of  a  fatal  character. 

More  accidents  happen  to  old  miners  than  to  men  who  are 
new  to  the  business.  The  old  miner  sometimes  forgets  where 
he  is,  while  'where  he  is'  is  just  what  the  greenhorn  is  all  the 
time  thinking  about.  He  is  always  on  the  lookout  for  trouble, 
and  he  is  always  holding  on  to  something  that  has  the  appear- 
ance of  being  pretty  substantial — particularly  when  he  is  in  the 
neighborhood  of  shafts  and  winzes ;  but  a  man  who  has  worked 
in  the  mines  for  years  will  walk  into  a  winze  or  chute  in  a  musing 
mood,  or  run  a  car  into  the  main  shaft  and  be  pulled  in  after  it, 
which  is  a  thing  a  green  hand  has  never  been  known  to  do. 
Shafts,  chutes,  winzes,  and  things  of  that  nature  are  what  he  is 
always  looking  for,  and  you  couldn't  pull  him  into  one  of  them 
with  any  yoke  of  oxen  ever  seen  in  a  mine. 

Hundreds  upon  hundreds  of  accidents  have  happened  in  the 
Comstock  mines,  some  hundreds  of  them  fatal.  A  large  volume 
would  not  contain  their  history.  I  may  furnish  a  few  examples 
at  random — by  no  means  the  worst  that  have  happened — in  order 
to  give  the  reader  some  insight  into  the  nature  of  the  accidents 
that  occur  in  mines : 

In  January,  1874,  four  miners  met  with  quite  a  thrilling  and 
perilous  adventure  in  the  bottom  of  the  main  shaft  of  the  Ophir 
mine.  No  situation  in  a  sensational  play  could  possibly  have 
been  more  blood-curdling  than  that  in  which  the  four  men  found 
themselves. 

They  were  at  work  sinking  the  shaft  below  the  jyoo-foot  level, 
and  had  drilled  and  charged  four  holes,  all  of  which  they  in- 
tended to  fire  at  once.  All  being  in  readiness,  they  pulled  the 
bell-rope,  striking  five  bells  at  the  surface,  which  was  the  signal 
for  the  engineer  to  lower  the  cage  to  the  bottom.  The  signal 
was  answered  by  the  cage  coming  down  to  where  they  stood. 
They  now  set  fire  to  the  fuses  leading  into  the  four  blasts  in  the 
bottom  of  the  shaft,  and  then  hastened  to  place  themselves  upon 
the  cage,  when  they  gave  the  signal  to  hoist — this  signal  being 
one  bell.  To  their  consternation  the  cage  did  not  move.  As 


ACCIDENTS  IN  THE  MINES. 


A  STRUGGLE  FOR  LIFE.  205 

each  second  passed — seconds  were  long  then—they  expected  to 
feel  the  cable  taut  and  the  cage  start  up,  but  it  remained  sta- 
tionary. The  fuses  were  spitting  fire  and  smoke  as  they  burned 
down  toward  the  powder ;  still  the  cage  moved  not.  The  signal 
was  again  given,  but  the  cage  remained  as  steadfast  as  before. 

The  fire  was  now  just  boring  its  way  down  through  the  fuses 
toward  the  four  charges  of  powder  tightly  tamped  deep  in  the 
rock,  while  the  men  were  standing  helplessly  over  the  fearful 
spot.  One  of  the  men,  as  a  forlorn  hope,  ran  to  the  charges  and 
wrenched  away  two  of  the  fuses  before  they  had  burned  down 
into  the  rock  below  his  reach,  but  when  he  came  to  the  others 
he  found  to  his  consternation  that  the  fire  had  passed  down  into 
the  rock.  Rushing  back  to  the  cage,  he  shouted  to  his  com- 
panions to  save  themselves  by  climbing  the  cable  and  timbers. 

A  fierce  struggle  for  life  then  ensued.  The  men  scrambled,  by 
means  of  the  cable  and  the  timbers,  to  get  as  far  up  the  shaft  as 
possible,  each  moment  expecting  the  stunning  explosion  and 
shower  of  rocks  which  they  knew  must  soon  come.  One  of  the 
men,  who,  it  would  seem,  was  completely  paralyzed  by  the 
terrors  of  the  situation,  had  hardly  made  an  attempt  to  move 
when  the  explosion  came.  The  three  others  managed  to  flatten 
their  bodies  against  the  walls,  and  screw  themselves  among  the 
lower  timbers  of  the  shaft,  and  escaped  unhurt;  but  the  man 
below  was  struck  in  the  forehead,  above  the  right  eye,  by  a  small 
piece  of  rock  which  crushed  in  his  skull. 

The  charges  in  the  bottom  of  the  shaft  were  usually  fired  by 
means  of  an  electrical  machine  stationed  above,  but  this  being 
out  of  order  at  the  time,  the  men  took  the  responsibility  of  firing 
the  blasts  in  the  manner  described,  and  with  the  result  stated. 
The  trouble  in  regard  to  the  giving  of  the  last  signal  was  that 
the  bell-rope — one  thousand  seven  hundred  feet  in  length — had 
got  foul  on  a  timber,  and  no  stroke  was  given  on  the  bell  above ; 
thus  the  engineer  knew  nothing  of  the  thrilling  scene  that  was 
being  enacted  below.  Strange  to  relate,  the  man  who  was  hurt 
got  well.  A  surgeon  took  out  a  number  of  pieces  of  bone,  and 
though  a  large  hole  was  left  in  the  skull,  the  man  soon  regained 
his  senses  and  complained  but  little  about  his  injury. 

In  February,  1874,  they  had  a  new  blasting  experience  at 
the  Belcher  mine,  Gold  Hill.  They  had  this  experience  at  the 


206  DANGEROUS  PLAYTHINGS. 

i2oo-foot  level  at  a  point  where  a  patent  drill  run  by  compressed 
air  was  being  used.  It  was  the  practice  to  drill  a  number  of 
holes,  charge  them  all  with  giant-powder  cartridges  (without  any 
tamping),  and  explode  the  whole  series  at  once  by  means  of  an 
electrical  battery.  On  the  occasion  of  the  accident,  the  men  on 
the  forenoon  shift  had  fired  a  number  of  holes  in  this  way,  but 
one  of  the  holes,  it  seems,  did  not  explode,  the  wire  thrust  into 
it  having  slipped  out.  When  the  afternoon  shift  came  to  work, 
they  supposed  this  hole  was  one  that  had  not  been  finished,  and, 
inserting  the  drill,  began  working  in  it.  The  concussion  of  the 
drill  fired  the  cartridge,  and  a  terrific  explosion  followed. 

At  the  moment  of  the  explosion  there  were  five  men  standing 
about  the  drill,  all  of  whom  were  more  or  less  injured.  The 
man  who  was  guiding  the  drill  was  struck  by  a  shower  of  small 
pieces  of  rock,  which  cut  his  face,  and  badly  cut  and  bruised 
his  arms  and  hips,  and,  in  short,  peppered  him  over  the  whole 
body.  Another  man  had  the  bridge  of  his  nose  broken,  was  cut 
about  the  head,  and  had  his  eyes  filled  with  gravel,  and  all  the 
others  injured  were  somewhat  similarly  cut  and  bruised.  Scores  of 
ordinary  blasting  accidents  might  be  mentioned — accidents  that 
occurred  from  the  premature  explosion  of  blasts  ;  by  trying  to 
drill  out  blasts ;  by  blasts  being  discharged  as  the  wires  from  the 
electrical  battery  were  being  inserted ;  by  persons  coming  un- 
awares upon  blasts  at  the  moment  of  their  explosion  ;  and  powder 
and  blasting  accidents  of  every  conceivable  nature — but  they 
can  all  be  imagined. 

The  caps  used  in  exploding  giant-powder  and  nitro-glycerine 
are  filled  with  a  powerful  fulminating  powder,  and  are  very  dan- 
gerous. They  explode  with  the  slightest  scratch  upon  their 
contents.  They  are  about  half  an  inch  in  length,  and  their 
interior  diameter  is  sufficient  to  admit  the  end  of  a  piece  of 
ordinary  blasting  fuse.  Persons  unacquainted  with  their  uses 
always  appear  to  be  overcome  by  an  ungovernable  curiosity  in 
regard  to  the  nature  of  their  contents,  the  moment  they  by  any 
means  get  hold  of  any  of  these  caps.  The  first  thing  they  do  is 
to  begin  probing  and  scratching  in  the  interior  of  the  little  cop- 
per cylinders,  in  order  to  get  out  and  examine  a  sample  of  their 
contents.  It  invariably  happens  that  at  about  the  first  or  second 
scratch  the  cap  explodes,  and  the  person  engaged  in  prospecting 


LOSS  OF  NOSES  AND   THUMBS. 


207 


it  loses  the  ends  of  two  fingers  and  the  thumb  of  the  left  hand. 
In  Virginia  Gity  and  Gold  Hill,  about  one  boy  per  week,  on 
an  average,  tries  this  experiment,  and  always  with  the  same 
result.  In  the  two  towns  there  must  now  be  scores  of  boys  who 
lack  the  ends  of  the  thumb  and  first  and  middle  fingers  of  their 
left  hands.  On  one  occasion  a  boy  created  quite  a  sensation  in 
one  of  the  public  schools  by  prospecting  the  interior  of  one  of 
these  giant-powder  caps.  The  report  startled  the  whole  school, 
frightened  the  school-teacher  nearly  out  of  her  wits,  and  spat- 
tered blood  and  bits  of  flesh  and  bone  over  the  faces  and  books 
of  half  a  dozen  of  the  pupils.  Miners  very  frequently  carry 
these  caps  loose  in  their  pockets,  often  mixed  with  their  tobacco, 
and  thus  occasionally  get  them  into  their  pipes.  Several  favorite 
meerschaums  have  been  lost  in  this  way,  and  the  ends  of  a  few 
noses. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

MINING    FATALITIES. 

MANY  miners  are  killed  by  thoughtlessly  running  cars 
into  the  main  working  shafts  of  the  mines,  when  no  cage 
is  standing  in  the  shaft.  They  probably  suppose  that  a 
cage  is  standing  in  the  shaft  ready  to  receive  the  car,  and,  with- 
out looking,  push  it  into  the  open  mouth  of  the  shaft. 

Accidents  of  this  kind  generally  happen  at  the  stations  of  the 
underground  levels.  It  almost  invariably  happens  when  a  car- 
man pushes  his  car  into  the  mouth  of  a  shaft,  that  he  is  pulled  in 
after  it.  The  sudden  pitching  forward  arid  downward  of  the 
car,  upon  the  top  of  the  rear  end  of  which  he  has  hold  with  both 
hands,  causes  him  to  so  far  lose  his  balance  that  he  can  never 
regain  it,  and  down  the  shaft  he  goes  after  his  car,  dashed  from 
side  to  side  against  the  timbers  and  planking  of  the  compart- 
ments of  the  shaft  into  which  he  has  fallen,  till  the  bottom  is 
reached,  hundreds  of  feet  below. 

The  effect  of  a  fall  through  a  vertical  shaft  1500  feet  in  depth 
is  much  the  same  as  though  a  man  were  shot  from  the  mouth  of 
a  cannon  and  thrown  a  distance  of  500  yards.  Mount  Davidson 
stands  about  1500  feet  higher  than  Virginia  City,  and  to  fall 
down  a  shaft  1500  feet  in  depth,  is  much  the  same  as  would  be 
a  fall  from  the  peak  of  that  mountain  (if  such  a  thing  were 
possible)  into  one  of  the  streets  of  the  town.  The  body  of  a  man 
falling  a  distance  of  one  thousand  feet  or  more,  emits  towards  the 
latter  part  of  its  course,  a  humming  sound,  somewhat  similar  to 
that  heard  from  a  passing  cannon-ball  of  large  size. 

A  few  instances  will  serve  to  show  the  effect  of  a  fall  of  this 
character  upon  the  human  body :  A  miner  who  was  ascending 

208 


BLOWN  TO  ATOMS!  209 

the  Imperial-Empire  *  shaft,  from  the  poo-foot  level,  accompa- 
nied by  six  companions,  when  within  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet 
of  the  surface,  spoke  of  feeling  faint.  He  had  hardly  spoken 
before  he  reeled  and  fell.  As  he  was  falling,  his  friends  caught 
him  by  the  coat,  but  as  the  garment  was  only  thrown  loosely 
over  his  shoulders,  it  pulled  off,  and  he  fell  off  the  cage  and  to 
the  bottom  of  the  shaft — a  distance  of  750  feet.  The  cage  was 
promtly  lowered  again  and  search  made  for  the  body,  which  was 
found  to  have  fallen  into  the  "  sump  "  or  well  at  the  bottom  of 
the  shaft.  As  the  sump  contained  a  considerable  quantity  of  water 
the  efforts  to  fish  up  the  body  were  not  successful,  until  a  good 
deal  of  bailing  with  the  hoisting  tank  (a  large  tank  with  a  valve 
in  its  bottom)  had  been  done. 

When  the  body  was  at  last  recovered,  it  was  found  to  be 
shockingly  mangled.  The  left  foot  was  pulled  off  at  the  ankle 
joint,  the  left  hand  at  the  wrist,  the  skull  was  crushed  to  pieces, 
and  the  bones  of  the  right  leg  were  crushed  into  small  fragments. 
The  face  was  but  slightly  disfigured.  The  left  foot  was  found 
hanging  by  the  torn  tendons,  to  a  timber  some  200  feet  below 
where  the  man  fell  from  the  cage.  The  left  hand  fell  into  the 
sump,  and  was  not  found/' 

Many  lives  are  lost  in  this  way.  Men  coming  up  from  the 
heated  regions  below,  when  the  thermometer  indicates  a  tem- 
perature of  from  no  to  120  degrees,  faint  on  reaching  the  cold  air 
at,  or  near,  the  top  of  the  shaft.  Strangers  visiting  the  mines 
should  always  mention  the  fact  to  those  with  them  on  the  cage, 
if  they  feel  the  slightest  symptom  of  vertigo  or  faintness,  as  they 
may  then  be  properly  supported. 

On  one  occasion  when  I  was  in  the  Consolidated  Virginia 
mine,  a  foreman  who  had  gone  up  with  a  cage-load  of  men, 
some  of  whom  were  visitors  to  the  mine,  informed  us  on  his 
return  that  one  of  the  party  just  conducted  to  the  surface  had 
made  a  narrow  escape.  He  said,  that  just  at  the  moment  of 
reaching  the  surface,  the  man  fainted,  and  fell  upon  the  floor  of  the 
cage.  Had  he  fallen  before,  while  the  cage  was  in  motion,  we 
should  probably  have  had  him  down  with  our  party  at  the  foot 

*  This  is  not  the  name  of  a  single  mining  company,  else  it  would  be  as 
idiotic  as  it  sounds,  but  the  partnership  shaft  is  owned  by  the  "  Empire"  com- 
pany and  the  "  Imperial "  company — hence  the  name. 


210  A  SINGULAR  ACCIDENT. 

of  the  shaft,  1500  feet  below,  some  minutes  before  the  foreman 
returned.  As  our  party  got  on  board  the  cage,  I  said  that  a  man 
who  felt  the  slightest  degree  of  uneasiness  in  the  region  of  the 
stomach,  or  of  'faintness,  should  at  once  mention  the  fact.  We 
were  within  about  200  feet  of  the  top  of  the  shaft  when  a  gentle- 
man from  San  Francisco  said  :  "  I  am  beginning  to  feel  sick  I  " 
Instantly  two  or  three  person  took  firm  hold  upon  his  arms  and 
the  collar  of  his  coat,  and  thus  held  him  until  the  surface  was 
reached.  At  the  surface  he  fainted,  and  a  man  under  each  arm 
carried  him  into  the  dressing-room,  where  he  soon  revived. 

The  last  time  I  visited  this  mine  I  had  but  just  changed  my 
clothes,  and  stepped  outside  of  the  building,  when  a  miner  fainted 
at  the  top  of  the  shaft  and  fell  to  the  bottom. 

His  head  was  torn  off,  his  arms  and  legs  were  torn  off,  and  all 
that  was  left  was  his  trunk,  in  which  not  a  whole  bone  remained. 
The  trunk  was  rolled  up  in  a  piece  of  canvas  and  brought  to  the 
surface,  while  pieces  of  his  arms,  legs,  and  head  were  scraped 
up  and  sent  up  in  candle-boxes. 

In  falling,  the  body  bounded  from  side  to  side  against  the 
walls  of  the  shaft,  and,  in  passing  the  i4oo-foot  station,  a  piece  of 
one  of  the  bones  of  a  leg,  with  some  flesh  adhering,  flew  out  of 
the  compartments  and  fell  on  the  station  floor.  He  was  a  French 
Canadian,  and  had  just  purchased  a  lot  of  trinkets  to  send  home 
to  his  wife  and  family  by  a  friend  who  was  going  to  leave  for 
Canada  the  next  day. 

Just  as  they  were  bringing  up  the  remains  in  the  canvas  and 
candle-boxes,  this  friend  arrived  to  get  the  trinkets  which  he 
was  to  carry  to  Canada. 

When  cages  are  passing  stations,  men  sometimes  put  their  heads 
out  into  the  shaft  and  'have  them  crushed  to  atoms  or  pulled 
entirely  off.  In  June,  1874,  a  miner  was  instantly  killed  by 
having  his  head  caught  by  a  descending  cage  at  the  Crown 
Point  mine.  He  was  at  the  time  in  the  act  of  pulling  the  bell- 
wire  at  the  station  at  the  looo-foot  level.  As  the  man  went  to 
pull  the  wire  to  stop  the  cage,  a  friend  who  was  with  him  turned 
to  a  box  to  get  a  candle.  When  he  turned  again  he  saw  his 
companion  going  down  with  the  cage.  The  cage  passed  down 
just  below  the  level  of  the  station,  and  stopped,  having  struck  the 
head  of  the  man  who  had  fallen  being  wedged  between  it  and 


A  If  TOM  A  TIC  SAFETY.  211 

the  side  of  the  shaft.  The  man  left  at  the  station,  thinking  his 
friend  had  gone  to  the  bottom  of  the  shaft,  rang  up  the  cage  (a 
double-decker),  wtfen  the  body  came  up  with  it,  the  legs  still 
fast. 

In  August,  1873,  at  the  Chollar-Potosi  mine,  a  miner  ran  an 
empty  car  into  the  shaft,  and  was  pulled  in  after  it,  falling  a 
distance  of  890  feet.  In  the  sump  were  found  floating  portions 
of  the  shattered  car.  but  the  body  of  the  man  had  sunk  to  the 
bottom  of  the  water.  By  the  use  of  grappling-irons  the  body, 
mangled  almost  out  of  all  semblance  to  a  man,  was  finally 
recovered.  The  whole  of  the  head  was  gone,  down  to  the  under- 
jaw,  both  legs  and  both  arms  were  broken  in  dozens  of  places, 
and,  indeed,  not  a  whole  bone  was  left  in  any  part  of  the  body. 
So  torn  and  mangled  was  it — so  nearly  reduced  to  pulp — that 
it  was  found  necessary  to  roll  it  in  a  blanket,  and  lash  it  to 
a  piece  of  plank,  in  order  to  get  it  up  to  the  surface.  In  pull- 
ing, the  man  was  dashed  from  side  to  side  of  the  shaft,  striking 
against  the  timbers,  now  on  this  side  and  now  on  that,  tearing 
all  the  clothing  from  his  person.  Shreds  of  clothing  were  found 
sticking  to  the  shaft  timbers  in  several  places.  In  one  place  one 
of  his  gloves  was  found  lying  on  a  timber,  and  in  another  place 
hung  a  piece  of  one  of  his  socks,  containing  a  toe  that  had  been 
torn  from  the  foot  The  pump  brought  up  bloody  water  for  a 
considerable  time  after  the  accident,  showing  that  the  whole 
contents  of  the  sump  had  been  crimsoned. 

Although  the  ingenuity  of  the  many  mechanics  about  the 
mines  is  constantly  exercised  in  devising  means  for  the  preven- 
tion of  accidents,  and  although  there  are  now  in  operation  a 
great  number  of  useful  inventions  of  this  kind,  yet  men  continue 
to  find  ways  of  being  wounded  and  killed  never  before  dreamed 
of.  In  all  of  the  leading  mines  safety-cages  are  in  use ;  also, 
safety  incline-cars,  or  "  giraffes,"  and  these  have  saved  scores  of 
lives.  With  the  safety-cage  or  giraffe  in  use  the  miners  do  not 
fall  to  the  bottom  when  a  cable  breaks.  The  safety  apparatus 
instantly  comes  in  play,  and  the  cage  or  giraffe  is  at  once  stopped, 
at  the  point  of  ascent  or  descent  at  which  the  cable  parted. 

In  all  the  hoisting  works  there  is  a  strong  cover  of  lattice- 
work over  the  mouth  of  each  compartment  of  the  main  shaft,  to 
prevent  men  from  stumbling  or  thoughtlessly  walking  into  it. 


212  ORIGIN  OF  ACCIDENTS. 

When  the  cage  comes  up  the  shaft,  the  iron  shield  or  "  bonnet  " 
on  its  top  picks  up  this  cover,  and  holds  it  up  out  of  the  way, 
the  floor  of  the  cage  meantime  filling  the  mouth  of  the  com- 
partment, and  guarding  it  in  place  of  the  cover;  when  the  cage 
descends  it  leaves  the  cover  behind  on  the  opening  through 
which  it  passed  down,  somewhat  like  the  cunning  little  animal 
that  pulls  the  door  of  its  hole  in  after  it  when  it  retreats  into 
the  ground. 

With  all  these  provisions  for  protecting  life  and  limb,  acci- 
dents continue,  and  must  ever  continue  to  happen,  as  there  are 
so  many  things  against  which  neither  the  owners  of  mines  nor 
the  miners  themselves  can  guard.  In  case  of  a  cable  parting, 
for  instance,  the  men  who  are  on  the  cage  are  protected  by  the 
safety  apparatus,  but  the  upper  part  of  the  cable  is  liable  to 
spring  backwards  and  kill  the  engineer  standing  at  his  engine 
fifty  or  sixty  feet  in  the  rear  of  the  shaft,  quite  at  the  opposite 
end  of  the  building. 

A  heavy  cable  of  steel  wire  whipping  back  in  this  way,  will  cut 
a  broad  road  through  the  whole  length  of  the  ceiling  of  a  build- 
ing, taking  off  large  joists  and  beams  as  though  they  were  so 
many  bars  of  soap.  Huge  fly-wheels  of  many  tons'  weight 
occasionally  burst  asunder,  tearing  the  sides  and  roof  of  the 
works  to  pieces,  killing  or  wounding  all  who  may  be  in  the  way 
of  the  flying  fragments;  boilers  sometimes  explode,  and  leave 
hardly  a  vestige  of  the  works  in  which  they  stood ;  men  are 
caught  in  the  cog-wheels  of  the  machinery ;  and,  in  short,  there 
is  no  safety  either  above  or  below  ground. 

Below  the  surface,  however,  the  accidents  are  most  numerous 
and  terrible.  In  the  examples  given  by  means  of  which  to  illus- 
trate the  fearful  velocity  attained  by  the  human  body  in  falling 
through  a  space  of  from  1000  to  1500  feet,  it  maybe  thought 
that  I  have  selected  the  most  shocking  I  could  find ;  but  such 
is  not  the  case.  It  is  the  usual  experience  that  in  falling  such  a 
distance,  the  hand,  foot,  or  head  of  a  man  coming  in  contact 
with  a  timber  toward  the  bottom  of  a  shaft,  is  cut  or  torn  off. 
It  is  by  no  means  unusual  for  the  remains  of  men  to  be  collected 
at  the  bottom  of  a  shaft  and  sent  to  the  surface  in  candle-boxes ; 
to  such  an  extent  are  the  bodies  and  limbs  of  many  who  fall 
into  shafts  rent  and  scattered.  On  one  occasion  of  this  kind, 


THE  PILGRIM  IN  A  COFFIN.  213 

when  the  jury  of  inquest  had  finished  hearing  the  testimony  and 
were  sitting  silent  round  the  fragmentary  remains,  considering 
their  verdict,  a  man  came  hurriedly  in,  with  a  candle-box  under 
his  arm,  approached  the  foreman,  and  said  to  him  in  a  reverent 
tone,  "  Wait  a  moment,  please — I've  got  some  more  of  him." 

Speaking  of  undertakers,  reminds  me  of  a  little  story :     One 
night  a  Virginia  City  policeman  while  going  his  round,  found  an 


THE    PILGRIMS    LODGINGS. 


inebriated  "  pilgrim  "  reposing  on  a  bench  in  front  of  an  under- 
taking establishment.  The  officer  shook  the  fellow  until  he 
awoke  him  from  his  drunken  slumber,  and  then  explained  to  him 
that  unless  he  found  other  and  less  public  quarters  he  should 
be  obliged  to  escort  him  to  the  station-house.  The  pilgrim  sat 
up,  and  rubbing  his  eyes,  explained  to  the  officer  that  he  was  a 
stranger  in  the  town  ;  that  he  had  but  fifty  cents  in  his  pocket, 
and,  the  night  being  warm,  he  had  concluded  to  sleep  out  of 
doors,  and  save  his  money  to  pay  for  a  breakfast  the  next 
morning.  Not  being  a  hard-hearted  man  the  officer  told  the 
fellow  that  he  might  finish  his  sleep,  provided  he  would  get  up 


214  SHUFFLING  OUT  THE  "CORPSE." 

and  move  out  of  sight  before  people  were  astir  in  the  streets. 

Passing  the  same  way,  in  the  course  of  an  hour  or  two,  the 
officer  found  that  his  man  had  rolled  off  the  bench,  and  was 
lying  at  full  length  in  the  empty  case  of  a  coffin  that  was  stand- 
ing at  the  edge  of  the  sidewalk,  close  beside  the  bench.  Rous- 
ing his  "  pilgrim  "  again,  the  officer  told  him  he  must  "  get  out 
of  that !  " 

"  Out  o'  what  ?  "  growled  the  fellow. 

"  Why,  out  of  that  coffin  !  "  said  the  officer — though  it  was 
only  one  of  those  coffin-shaped  cases  in  which  coffins  are 
shipped. 

"  Who's  in  a  coffin  ?  "  asked  the  fellow,  evidently  becoming 
somewhat  interested. 

"Why,  you  are  !  "  said  the  officer. 

"  Not  if  I  know  it,  I  ain't !  "  said  the  pilgrim. 

"Well,  I  know  it,"  said  the  officer  sharply,  "  and  if  you  don't 
get  out  of  it  pretty  shortly  it  will  be  the  last  of  you.  Don't  you 
know  that  if  these  undertakers  get  up  in  the  morning  and  find 
you  snoozing  away  there,  they'll  clap  a  lid  on  that  coffin,  screw 
it  down,  hustle  you  out  to  the  graveyard  and  bury  you,  then  send 
in  a  bill  and  make  the  county  pay  your  funeral  expenses.  It's 
just  one  of  the  tricks  that  our  Washoe  undertakers  like  to 
play!" 

Crawling  out  of  his  narrow  quarters,  the  fellow  rubbed  his 
eyes  and  gazed  at  the  coffin-shaped  case  for  some  time,  then 
said : 

"  I'd  like  to  know  what  sort  of  a  dod-rotted  set  of  undertakers 
you've  got  out  here  in  this  country,  anyway,  that  go  and  set 
rows  of  coffins  'longside  the  sidewalks,  fur  to  ketch  corpses  ?  " 
and  without  waiting  for  an  answer,  he  shuffled  away  to  find 
safer  quarters/' 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

THE   TOWNS  OF   THE   BIG   BONANZA. 

AS  not  much  has  yet  been  said  in  regard  to  the  principal 
towns  of  the  "  big  bonanza,"  I  shall  now  devote  a  few 
chapters  to  Virginia  City  and  Gold  Hill,  but  more 
particularly  to  railroads,  water-works,  lumber-flumes,  and 
other  things  intimately  connected  with  the  growth  and  pros- 
perity of  those  towns,  and  the  cheap  and  economical  working 
of  the  mines. 

To  begin,  I  may  say  that  the  two  towns,  Virginia  City  and 
Gold  Hill,  which  were  formerly  over  one  mile  apart,  are  now 
united,  and  the  dividing  line  cannot  be  distinguished.  The 
population  of  Virginia  City  is  a  little  over  twenty  thousand, 
and  that  of  Gold  Hill  about  ten  thousand,  according  to  the 
directory  for  1875. 

Virginia  City,  as  has  already  several  times  been  mentioned, 
lies  along  the  eastern  face  of  Mount  Davidson,  on  a  broad 
sloping  plateau,  and  is  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  rugged 
hills  and  rocky  mountain  peaks.  In  the  early  days,  these 
hills  were  covered  with  a  sparse  growth  of  nut  pine-trees—a 
sort  of  stunted  pine,  in  size  and  form  of  trunk  and  branches 
somewhat  resembling  an  ordinary  apple-tree — but  the  demand 
for  fuel  for  the  mines,  mills,  and  domestic  uses,  swept  all 
these  away  in  a  very  few  years,  and  even  the  stumps  have 
been  dug  up  and  made  into  firewood  by  the  Chinese. 

Gold  Hill  is  situated  at  the  head  of  Gold  Canon,  on  the 
south  side  of  Mount  Davidson,  and  is  shut  in  by  the  walls  of 
the  ravine,  along  which  stand  the  principal  buildings  of  the 
town.  A  ridge  about  two  hundred  feet  in  height,  lies  between 

215 


216  THE  FIRST-BORN  OF  VIRGINIA  CITY. 

the  two  towns,  which  is  known  as  the  "  Divide."  The  Divide 
is  covered  with  buildings,  and  is  a  fine  airy  location — a  place 
where  the  "  Washoe  zephyr  "  waltzes  to  and  fro  at  will. 

In  1859,  there  were  some  scattering  nut  pine-trees  on  the 
sides  of  the  mountains  about  Gold  Hill,  but  these  soon  went 
the  way  of  those  about  Virginia  City,  and  now  all  the  hills 
and  mountains,  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach,  are  brown  and 
treeless.  The  only  covering  of  either  hills  or  valleys  is  the 
eternal  and  ever-present  sage-brush. 

This  shrub  grows  to  the  height  of  from  one  to  four  feet,  and 
its  leaves  are  not  green,  but  of  an  ashen-grey — much  the  color 
and  much  the  same  in  shape  as  the  leaves  of  the  common 
garden  sage.  The  botanical  name  of  this  shrub  is  artemisia 
tridentata.  Through  the  scanty  covering  of  sage-brush  the 
rocks  everywhere  rise  up  as  though  they  might  be  the  bones 
of  the  land  peeping  through  its  skin. 

The  first  house  built  in  Virginia  City  was  a  canvas  struc- 
ture, eighteen  by  forty  feet  in  size,  erected  in  1859  by  Lyman 
Jones,  one  of  the  pioneers  of  the  country.  Mrs.  Jones  was 
the  first  white  woman  who  lived  where  Virginia  City  now 
stands,  and  her  daughter  Ella,  was  the  first  white  child  seen 
in  the  camp. 

The  first  white  child  born  in  Virginia  City  was  a  daughter 
of  J.  H.  Tilton,  one  of  the  pioneer  wagon-road  builders  of  the 
country.  She  was  born  on  the  ist  of  April,  1860,  and  was  named 
Virginia.  She  still  lives  in  the  town  in  which  she  first  saw 
the  light. 

In  Virginia  City  are  to  be  seen  as  many  large  and  substan- 
tial buildings,  both  public  and  private,  as  in  any  town  of  like 
population  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  The  Catholics,  Episcopa- 
lians, Presbyterians,  Methodists,  Baptists,  and  other  leading 
Christian  denominations  have  fine  and  costly  churches  in  the 
town,  and  these  are  as  well  attended  as  the  churches  in  any 
other  land.  The  Masons  and  Odd  Fellows  have  fine  halls, 
and  both  societies  are  in  a  very  flourishing  condition. 

There  are  in  the  city  most  of  the  orders  and  societies  found 
in  other  large  towns;  as,  the  Knights  of  Pythias,  Ancient 
Order  of  Druids,  Improved  Order  of  Red-Men,  Knights  of  the 
Red  Branch,  Champions  of  the  Red  Cross,  Crescents,  Irish 


VIRGINIA  TILTON. 


A  COMICAL  NEWSPAPER  OFFICE.  217 

Confederation,  Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians,  Caledonia  Soci- 
ety, Society  of  Pacific  Coast  Pioneers,  two  Turn  Vereins, 
Miners'  Union,  Printers'  Union,  and  several  similar  societies. 

In  the  way  of  benevolent  associations,  there  are,  the  Vir- 
ginia  Benevolent  Society,  Italian  Benevolent  Society,  Hiber- 
nian Benevolent  Society,  St.  Vincent  de  Paul  Benevolent 
Society,  and  several  others.  In  the  city  is  St.  Mary's  Orphan 
Asylum  and  School  (under  the  charge  of  the  Sisters  of 
Charity),  built  at  the  cost  of  about  $100,000,  and  the  St. 
Vincent  Hospital,  which  cost  $40,000  or  $50,000.  In  the 
town  are  five  military  companies — the  National  Guard,  Em- 
met Guard,  Washington  Guard,  Montgomery  Guard,  and  the 
Nevada  Artillery. 

In  the  several  wards  of  the  city  are  handsome,  commodious 
and  comfortable  school-houses,  and  there  are  several  flourish- 
ing Sunday-schools,  conducted  under  the  auspices  of  various 
religious  societies.  The  city  is  lighted  with  gas,  is  supplied 
with  pure  water  from  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains,  and  has 
telegraphic  communication  with  all  parts  of  the  world. 

Two  daily  papers  are  published  in  Virginia,  the  Territorial 
Enterprise,  and  the  Evening  Chronicle.  The  Enterprise  is  a 
morning  paper,  and  the  Chronicle,  as  its  name  implies,  is 
published  in  the  evening.  The  Enterprise  is  the  oldest  news- 
paper in  Nevada.  The  first  number  (it  was  then  a  weekly), 
was  issued  at  Genoa,  on  Saturday,  December  i8th,  1858.  This 
was  the  year  before  the  discovery  of  silver  in  Nevada,  and 
Genoa  was  then  a  town  of  about  200  inhabitants.  The  office 
of  publication  was  removed  to  Carson  City,  in  November, 
1859,  and  remained  there  till  November,  1860,  when  it  was 
removed  to  Virginia  City.  The  office  in  which  the  Enterprise 
was  first  published  in  Virginia  City,  was  a  small,  one-story 
frame  building  with  a  shed  or  lean-to  on  one  side,  and  was  a 
queerly  arranged  establishment.  The  proprietors  had  the 
shed  part  fitted  up  as  a  kitchen  and  dining  and  lodging-place. 
Bunks  were  ranged  along  the  sides  of  the  room,  one  above 
another,  as  on  shipboard,  and  here  editors,  printers,  proprie- 
tors, and  all  hands  "  bunked  "  after  the  style  of  the  miners  in 
their  cabins.  A  Chinaman,  "  Old  Joe,"  did  the  cooking,  and 
three  times  each  day  the  whole  crowd  of "  newspaper  men " 


218  GROWING  LIKE  MUSHROOMS. 

were  called  out  to  the  long  table  in  the  shed  to  get  their 
"square  meal."  The  "devil"  went  for  numerous  lunches 
between  meals,  and  often  came  flying  out  into  the  composition- 
room  with  a  large  piece  of  pie  in  his  mouth,  and  the  old  Chi- 
naman at  his  heels. 

The  Virginia  City  Fire  Department  contains  four  fine  steam 
fire  engines,  one  Babcock  engine  and  two  or  three  hand 
engines,  hook  and  ladder  apparatus,  and  all  else  required  in 
battling  with  fires  in  a  town  of  the  size.  There  are  also  in 
various  places  hydrants,  to  which  hose  can  be  attached  and 
powerful  streams  thrown,  in  case  of  a  fire  occurring  in  their 
neighborhood. 

In  the  business  part  of  the  city  are  many  large  and  substan- 
tial fire-proof  brick  and  stone  structures.  There  is  a  large 
frame  theatre  and  several  halls  in  which  balls  and  lectures 
are  given.  The  rooms  of  the  Washoe  Club  are  as  fine  as 
those  of  most  similar  clubs  in  large  cities,  and  were  fitted  up 
at  a  cost  of  about  $75,000.  They  contain  a  library,  reading 
and  billiard-rooms,  dining-room,  and  all  else  required  for  the 
accommodation  ot  members.  Many  fine  oil  paintings  adorn 
the  walls,  and  the  furniture  and  all  the  appointments  are 
costly  and  elegant. 

Owing  to  the  fact  that  the  plateau  on  which  the  town  is 
built  slopes  rapidly  to  the  east,  buildings  that  are  but  three 
stories  high  in  front,  are  in  places  five  or  six  stories  in  the 
rear.  This  configuration  of  the  ground  is  of  great  advantage 
to  those  who  wish  to  make  a  display  in  cellars  and  basements. 

On  account  of  the  altitude,  the  atmosphere  is  very  light  and 
thin,  but  the  climate  is  as  healthful  as  that  of  any  town  on 
the  Pacific  Coast.  When  the  town  was  first  settled,  for  some 
reason  never  explained,  a  notion  prevailed  that  it  was  a  bad 
place  for  children — that  children  could  not  be  reared  there ; 
but  this  was  a  great  mistake.  Finer  or  more  robust  children 
can  be  seen  in  no  town  or  city  in  the  Union  than  those  of 
Virginia.  They  grow  like  mushrooms.  This  is  probably 
because  they  have  to  contend  with  but  a  small  amount  of 
atmospheric  pressure — there  is  nothing  to  prevent  their  shoot- 
ing up  and  expanding  in  all  directions. 

It  is  a  well  known-known  scientific  fact  that  animals,  as 


COUNTRY  AND  CITY. 


UNDERMINED !  221 


sheep  and  deer,  found  on  elevated  mountain  ranges,  have 
larger  lungs  than  the  same  species  when  inhabiting  places  at 
or  near  the  level  of  the  sea ;  therefore  the  children  of  Virginia 
City  are  likely  to  be  large-lunged  and  broad-chested  when 
they  arrive  at  maturity.  The  air  being  thin  and  light,  it  is 
necessary  for  those  breathing  it  to  inhale  it  in  greater  volume 
than  would  be  required  in  breathing  the  denser  atmosphere 
of  places  at  or  near  the  level  of  the  sea,  and  to  do  this,  there 
must  be  a  proper  and  proportionate  expansion  of  the  lungs. 
Children  born  in  the  country  provide  themselves  with  a 
proper  supply  of  lungs  without  any  looking  after,  but  adults 
sometimes  find  the  stretching  of  their  lungs  to  the  required 
standard,  a  somewhat  unpleasant  operation. 

The  town  of  Gold  Hill  is  well  supplied  with  churches  and 
schools,  societies  of  all  kinds,  fire  apparatus,  and  all  else  that 
should  be  found  in  a  place  of  its  population  and  business. 
What  has  been  said  of  Virginia  City  in  regard  to  these  mat- 
ters, will  apply  equally  well  to  Gold  Hill.  The  town  has  one 
daily  paper,  the  Evening  News,  contains  the  works  of  many  of 
the  leading  mines  of  the  Comstock,  and  is  a  lively,  bustling 
business  place — is  full  of  the  thunder  of  machinery  and  the 
shriek  of  steam-whistles.  Although  but  a  mile  from  the 
centre  of  Virginia,  the  temperature  of  Gold  Hill  is  about  five 
degrees  higher,  winter  and  summer,  than  in  the  first-named 
town. 

The  whole  town  is  undermined,  and  may  be  said  to  stand 
on  a  foundation  of  timbers.  The  ground  worked  out  under- 
neath the  town  has,  however,  been  so  thoroughly  filled  in 
with  timbers  and  waste  rock  that  there  is  no  danger  of  it 
caving,  though  it  is  immediately  but  slowly  settling.  To  the 
eastward  of  the  town,  and  behind  a  large  hill  on  which  a 
portion  of  the  town  stands,  a  crevice  has  opened  which  is 
is  nearly  a  mile  in  length,  and  in  places  over  two  feet  in 
width.  This  shows  that  the  whole  place,  hill  and  all,  is 
gradually  "  subsiding."  Both  Virginia  and  Gold  Hill  have 
frequently  been  swept  over  by  great  fires,  involving  a  loss 
of  property  to  the  extent  of  many  millions  of  dollars.  The 
burnt  districts,  however,  have  always  been  speedily  rebuilt. 
The  houses  destroyed  have  been  replaced  with  better  and 
13 


222  AMONG  THE  RUBBISH-DUMPS. 

more  substantial  stuctures,  and  consequently  the  towns  have 
improved  in  appearance  by  means  of  the  fires  they  have  passed 
through,  though  many  persons  have  suffered  great  loss. 

A  striking  feature  of  both  towns,  and  one  which  at  once 
rivets  the  attention  of  all  strangers,  is  the  immense  piles  of 
rock  seen  in  the  neighborhood  of  all  the  principal  mines.  In 
these  great  dump-piles  are  heaped  the  rock  and  earth  extracted 
in  sinking  the  shafts,  running  the  drifts,  and  in  making  other 
underground  excavations.  Persons  from  the  Atlantic  States, 
who  are  in  the  habit  of  judging  of  the  depth  of  a  well  or  other 
excavation  by  the  amount  of  rubbish  seen  on  the  surface,  are 
greatly  surprised  at  the  size  of  the  dumps,  and  their  first 
question  is :  "  Did  all  that  dirt  come  out  of  one  mine  ? "  As 
soon  as  they  see  one  of  these  mountains  of  waste  rock,  they 
begin  a  mental  calculation  as  to  the  size  of  the  hole  left  in 
the  ground.  It  is  no  small  pile  of  rubbish  that  comes  out  of  a 
shaft  six  feet  wide,  twenty-two  feet  long,  and  from  1,500  to 
2,500  feet  deep — to  say  nothing  of  the  debris  from  innumer- 
able drifts,  crosscuts  and  winzes. 

The  dump-piles  of  the  Savage  and  Hale  and  Norcross, 
mining  companies,  situated  in  the  southeastern  part  of  Vir- 
ginia City,  are  among  the  largest  on  the  Comstock,  the  shafts 
of  these  mines  having  been  carried  down  to  a  depth  of  nearly 
2,500  feet;  the  waste -dump  of  the  Bullion  mine,  at  the  north 
end  of  Gold  Hill,  is  also  of  great  size.  In  many  instances, 
the  waste  rock  hoisted  out  of  the  mines  is  utilized  in  filling  in 
and  leveling  the  ground  surrounding  the  buildings  above  the 
shafts.  In  this  way,  acres  of  level  ground  are  made,  and  the 
number  of  the  unsightly  dump-piles  is  much  diminished. 

J.  P.  Jones,  United  States  Senator  from  Nevada,  has  a 
residence  in  the  town  of  Gold  Hill,  where  live  his  mother  and 
three  of  his  brothers,  one  of  whom,  Samuel  L.  Jones,  is  super- 
intendent of  the  Crown  Point  mine,  one  of  the  leading  mines 
of  the  Comstock.  The  mother  of  the  Senator,  although  she 
might  reside  in  any  one  of  the  cities  of  the  Union,  prefers  to 
make  her  home  at  Gold  Hill — is  really  in  love  with  the  wild 
beauty  of  the  surrounding  hills,  and  the  thunder  of  machinery, 
and  all  the  sights,  sounds,  and  excitements  incident  to  life  in 
the  midst  of  the  silver-mines. 


BIG  LOADS.  225 


Omnibuses  ply  between  Gold  Hill  and  Virginia  City,  and 
soon  street-cars  will  be  running  between  the  two  towns,  and 
perhaps  as  far  as  Silver  City,  a  distance  of  five  miles.  Gold 
Canon,  between  Gold  Hill  and  Silver  City,  is  filled  with 
mills,  hoisting-works,  business  houses  and  residences,  and 
from  the  place  last  named  to  Virginia  City,  a  distance  of  five 
miles, it  may  be  said  to  be  one  town. 

In  the  early  history  of  the  Comstock  towns,  huge  "  prairie 
schooners,"  laden  with  goods,  merchandise,  and  machinery, 
from  over  the  Sierras,  thronged  the  streets.  Each  "  schooner  " 
was  drawn  by  a  team  of  from  fourteen  to  sixteen  mules,  and 
«ach  mule  was  provided  with  a  chime  of  bells,  suspended  in  a 
steel  bow  or  arch  above  the  bearskin  housings  of  his  collar. 
A  few  of  these  teams  sufficed  to  fill  a  whole  street  with  music, 
but  it  was  a  kind  of  music  that  sounded  best  when  heard  at  a 
distance  and  far  up  in  the  mountains.  These  great  teams  are 
now  no  longer  seen.  The  only  big  teams  are  those  employed 
in  hauling  quartz  to  mills  that  are  off  the  line  of  the  railroad, 
and  in  similar  local  freighting. 

Many  of  the  wagons  still  in  use  are  capable  of  hauling 
immense  loads.  In  that  country  they  have  a  way  of  hitching 
a  second  and  smaller  wagon  behind  the  first,  which  second 
wagon  is  called  a  "  back-action."  Often  as  many  as  three  and 
four  wagons  are  thus  coupled  together  in  a  train.  In  this 
way  twenty-four  cords  of  wood  have  been  hauled  by  a  team 
of  twelve  animals;  ten  horses  hauled  on  one  occasion  73,050 
pounds  of  quartz,  and  on  another  occasion  twelve  horses 
hauled  84,000  pounds  of  ore  a  distance  of  eight  miles.  Four 
wagons  were  used  in  each  instance.  These  were,  of  course, 
unusually  large  loads,  and  were  hauled  on  account  of  there 
"being  some  bantering  between  certain  team-owners,  but  the 
teamsters  of  Nevada  usually  haul  heavier  loads  than  are 
hauled  elsewhere. 

Being  in  Gold  Hill,  on  one  occasion,  with  two  Western 
farmers  who  wished  to  see  some  of  the  mills  and  hoisting 
works  of  the  place,  I  was  somewhat  amused  at  their  anxiety 
to  satisfy  themselves  in  regard  to  the  weight  of  the  loads 
hauled  by  the  Washoe  teamsters.  They  had  been  told  a  good 
many  stories  in  regard  to  big  loads,  and  had  made  many 


226  "SEE  FOR   YOURSELVES." 

memorandums  of  the  same,  but  still  could  hardly  credit  what 
had  been  told  them. 

Seeing  a  wagon-load  of  ore  being  weighed,  they  said: 
"  Now  we  have  caught  them  in  the  act !  Now  we  shall  see 
for  ourselves.  They  are  just  weighing  that  load.  Two — four 
— six  horses.  We  shall  now  see  what  is  a  Washoe  load  for 
six  horses ! " 

As  the  wagon  was  driven  off  the  scales,  I  said  to  the  man 
who  had  done  the  weighing:  "These  gentlemen  are  farmers 
from  the  West.  They  are  curious  to  know  the  weight  of  the 
load  of  ore  that  has  just  been  driven  off  the  scales." 

"  It  weighed  just  28,000  pounds,"  said  the  man  of  the  scales. 
The  farmers  looked  at  each  other  and  smiled. 

"You  may  see  for  yourselves,"  said  he  of  the  scales;  "the 
weights  used,  as  you  see,  are  still  on — count  them  up." 

"  No;"  said  the  farmers;  "we  are  satisfied;  but  it  will  never 
do  for  us  to  speak  of  the  loads  hauled  in  Washoe,  when  we 
get  back  among  our  neighbors." 

Said  the  weigh-master,  "I'll  tell  you  what  is  a  fact;  a  team 
of  ten  horses,  drawing  a  train  of  four  wagons,  hauled  a  load 
of  ore  which  weighed  over  73,000  pounds  along  this  street  on 
which  you  stand." 

Said  the  Iowa  farmer  to  the  Ohio  farmer :  "  Let  us  go ;  we 
don't  want  to  hear  too  much ! " 

The  man  at  the  scales  then  offered  to  show  them  a  whole 
bookful  of  weights  of  loads  hauled,  if  they  would  step  into 
his  office ;  but  they  had  seen  and  heard  enough,  and,  as  they 
said — "  More  than  we  dare  speak  of  at  home." 

At  present,  the  greater  part  of  the  ore  that  is  not  reduced 
near  the  mines,  is  exported  by  rail,  and,  indeed,  the  railroad 
does  most  of  the  heavy  freighting  of  the  whole  country. 


CHAPTER   XXXI. 

CONSTRUCTION    OF   RAILROAD    LINES. 

THE  Virginia  and  Truckee  Railroad,  runs  from  Virginia 
City  to  Reno,  on  the  Truckee  River,  at  which  point  it 
connects  with  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad.  The  length 
of  the  road  is  52  miles,  and  it  is  undoubtedly  the  crookedest 
road  in  the  United  States — probably  the  crookedest  in  the  world. 

Ground  was  broken  for  the  road,  on  the  ipth  of  February,  1869, 
and  in  eight  months  after,  it  was  doing  business  between  Virginia 
and  Carson  City — a  distance  of  twenty-one  miles. 

The  heavy  work  lies  between  these  points — nearly  all  of  the 
tunnels,  deep  cuts  and  sharp  curves — and  for  the  greater  part  of 
the  distance  the  road  was  cut  through  solid  rock. 

From  Virginia  City  to  the  Carson  River,  a  distance  of  13 
miles,  the  track  is  a  continuous  incline.  The  maximum  grade 
is  116  feet.  The  maximum  radius  of  curves  is  300  feet,  and  the 
degrees  of  curvature  amount  in  all — between  Virginia  and 
Carson  City — to  6,120;  or,  in  other  words,  are  equal  to  going 
seventeen  times  round  a  circle.  Thus,  in  traveling  from  Vir- 
ginia City  to  Carson — twenty-one  miles — one  passes  through  a 
sufficiency  of  curves  to  carry  him  round  a  circle,  360  degrees, 
seventeen  times.  This  surpasses  any  "swinging  round  the 
circle,"  political  or  otherwise,  that  has  ever  been  done  in  the 
United  States. 

There  are  on  the  road  six  tunnels  of  an  aggregate  length  of 
2,400  feet.  All  of  these  tunnels  are  lined  through  their  whole 
length  with  zinc,  as  a  protection  against  fire.  Wood  is  the  fuel 
used  on  all  the  locomotives,  and  in  tugging  up  the  mountain 
with  heavy  trains  such  a  Vesuvius  of  sparks  is  poured  from  the 

227 


228  CIRCULAR  TRA  VELLING. 

smoke-stacks,  that  without  the  protection  of  the  zinc  lining  the 
woodwork  of  tunnels  would  constantly  be  taking  fire. 

As  I  have  said,  the  heaviest  work  on  the  road  was  between 
Virginia  and  Carson  City.  The  cost  of  this  section  of  21  miles 
of  road  was  $1,750,000,  or  about  $83,000  per  mile,  which  includes 
permanent  way  and  graduation — that  is,  with  the  track  laid,  and 
the  road  ready  for  business.  The  cost  of  the  whole  road  was 
about  $3,000,000.  From  Virginia  City  to  Reno,  the  terminus. 
of  the  road,  the  distance  in  an  air-line  is  16^  miles,  while  by 
rail  it  is  52  miles.  By  the  wagon-road,  over  the  mountain,  the 
distance  from  Virginia  to  Reno  is  only  22  miles.  Over  this 
wagon-road,  known  as  the  Ganger  Grade,  supplies  of  all  kinds,, 
including  heavy  machinery  for  the  mines,  were  brought  to  Vir- 
ginia, previous  to  the  completion  of  the  railroad ;  the  hauling 
being  done  by  teams  of  ten,  twelve,  fourteen,  and  sixteen  mules 
each,  attached  to  huge  wagons  known  as  "prairie  schooners." 

As  will  be  seen,  by  the  distance  from  Virginia  City  to  Reno  in 
a  direct  line,  the  traveler  not  only  swings  seventeen  times  round 
the  circle,  in  going  from  Virginia  to  Carson,  but  has  almost 
completed  a  grand  circle  when  he  reaches  the  end  of  the  road  and 
connects  with  the  Central  Pacific.  He  starts  off  in  a  southerly 
direction,  and  so  continues  until  Carson  is  reached,  when  he 
turns  and  travels  northward  until  he  arrives  at  Reno. 

At  Steamboat  Springs,  between  Carson  City  and  Reno,  the 
traveler  who  starts  from  Virginia  has  traveled  forty  miles  by 
rail,  yet  it  is  but  5-^  miles  from  the  place  whence  he  started,. 
Steamboat  Springs  being  situated  just  back  or  west  of  Mount 
Davidson,  on  the  eastern  face  of  which  Virginia  City  stands. 
Between  Virginia  and  Carson  the  only  piece  of  straight  road  is 
one  little  stretch  about  similes  in  length,  but  between  Carson 
and  Reno  are  found  several  miles  of  road  tolerably  straight. 
The  road  does  an  immense  local  carrying  business.  From  500 
to  800  tons  of  ore  are  daily  carried  over  it  to  the  mills  on  the 
Carson  River,  and  return  trains  bring  great  quantities  of  wood, 
lumber,  and  timber  for  use  at  the  mines.  From  thirty  to  as 
high  as  forty-five  trains  per  day  pass  over  that  part  of  the  road 
lying  between  Virginia  and  Carson  City. 

Notwithstanding  the  crookedness  of  the  road,  trains  run  over 
it  at  a  high  rate  of  speed,  as  the  road  is  kept  in  perfect  order 


RUGGED    WAYS.  229 


and  steel  rails  are  used  on  the  mountains  where  short  curves 
most  abound.  So  crooked  is  the  road  that  in  places,  in  going 
down  the  mountain  with  a  long  train,  the  locomotive  seems^  to 
be  coming  back  directly  toward  the  rear  car,  when  directly  it 
gracefully  sheers  off  and  heads  down  the  mountain  again,  the 
train  being  thrown  into  the  form  of  the  letter  S,  reminding  one 
of  what  the  Bible  says  of  the  "way  of  a  serpent  on  a  rock." 

From  Reno — over  the  whole  length  of  the  road — come  vast 
amounts  of  machinery,  stores,  and  supplies  of  all  kinds  for  the 
mines  and  mills,  and  goods  and  merchandise  for  all  of  the  towns 
along  the  river  and  in  the  mines.  Along  the  road  are  a  great 
number  of  side  tracks  and  switches  leading  to  mills  and  mining 
works.  Some  of  these  are  of  considerable  length  and,  as  more 
are  constantly  being  constructed,  the  indications  are  that  the 
added  length  of  these  will  possibly  exceed  that  of  the  main  road. 

Branch  roads,  all  of  a  permanent  and  substantial  character, 
are  being  built  to  the  shafts  of  the  leading  mines,  to  be  used  in 
taking  in  machinery,  wood,  timber,  lumber,  and  other  supplies, 
and  for  sending  ore  out  to  the  mills.  Many  of  these  side-tracks 
are  laid  in  places  where  it  would  be  almost  impossible  to  con- 
struct an  ordinary  wagon-road,  and  to  see  trains  darting  out  of 
tunnels,  and  rushing  along  the  face  of  almost  perpendicular  hills, 
disappearing  behind  a  great  tower  of  rock  one  moment,  and  the 
next  coming  in  sight  again  and  swinging  round  a  second  rugged 
tower,  looks  somewhat  too  "lively."  All  the  wonderful  engin- 
eering required  in  the  construction  of  these  side-tracks,  as  well 
as  in  the  the  main  road,  was  done  by  Mr.  I.  E.  James,  an  old 
resident  of  the  country — the  man  who  has  done  nearly  all  of 
the  intricate  surveying  that  has  been  required  in  the  leading 
mines  on  the  Comstock  lode.  Although  one  of  the  most  modest 
and  unassuming  men  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  with  him  nothing  in 
the  way  of  engineering  appears  to  be  impossible. 

After  having  seen  the  Virginia  and  Truckee  Railroad,  all  will 
say  that  there  is  no  region  so  rugged  but  that  a  track  for  the 
"  iron  horse  "  may  be  found  over  it  and  through  it  in  all  direc- 
tions. When  engineers,  conductors,  and  other  railroad  men  from 
the  Atlantic  States,  first  begin  running  on  the  Virginia  and 
Truckee  road  they  promise  themselves  that  they  will  make  a 
very  short  stay,  but  in  a  few  months  they  begin  to  take  pride  in 


230  THE  MEN  ON  THE  LINE. 

their  ability  to  run  on  such  a  road ;  they  like  the  excitement  of 
it  and  consider  that  those  who  only  run  on  roads  that  are 
straight  and  level  know  but  little  about  the  beauties  of  the 
business — about  railroading  as  a  fine  art.  Although  these  men 
run  trains  down  the  mountains  from  Virginia  City  to  Carson 
River  swinging  seventeen  times  round  the  circle  and  going  at  a 
fearful  rate  of  speed,  yet  serious  accidents  very  seldom  occur. 
The  trains  are  timed  by  telegraph  and  the  stations  are  so  nume- 
rous that  the  conductors  are  always  well  informed  in  regard  to 
the  trains  on  the  road,  and  their  position. 

Surveys  have  been  made  for  a  narrow-gauge  railroad  from 
Virginia  City  to  Reno,  and  thence  to  the  northward,  along  the 
eastern  base  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains.  This  road  will 
run  northward  from  Virginia — starting  out  in  an  opposite  direc- 
tion from  that  taken  by  the  Virginia  and  Truckee  Railroad, 
and  will  pass  over  some  very  rough  country,  but  will  reach 
Reno  by  a  shorter*  route  than  the  other  road  named.  The 
object  in  building  this  narrow-gauge  road  is  the  tapping  of  the 
vast  forests  of  pine  lying  along  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Sierras. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

AN   ENGINEERING    TRIUMPH. 

ANOTHER  work  that  has  been  of  great  benefit  to  the 
towns  along  the  Comstock,  and  to  all  the  mining  and 
milling  companies  in  and  about  the  towns,  and  along  the 
canons  below,  was  the  bringing  of  an  ample  supply  of  pure 
water  from  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains. 

In  the  early  days,  when  the  first  mining  was  done  at  Virginia 
City  and  Gold  Hill,  natural  springs  furnished  a  supply  of  water 
for  the  use  of  the  few  persons  then  living  in  the  two  camps.  For 
a  time  after  the  discovery  of  silver,  these  springs,  and  a  few  wells 
that  were  dug  by  the  settlers,  sufficed  for  all  uses,  but  as  the 
towns  grew  in  population,  an  increased  supply  of  water  was 
demanded.  A  water  company  was  formed  and  the  water  flow- 
ing from  several  tunnels  that  had  been  run  into  the  mountains 
west  of  Virginia  City  for  prospecting  purposes,  was  collected  in 
large  wooden  tanks,  and  distributed  about  the  two  towns  by 
means  of  pipes.  At  length  the  tunnels  from  which  this  supply 
was  obtained  began  to  run  dry,  and  a  water  famine  was  threat- 
ened. It  then  became  necessary  to  set  men  to  work  at  extending 
the  tunnels  further  into  the  hills  to  cut  across  new  strata  of  rock. 
This  increased  the  supply  for  a  time,  but,  at  length,  the  whole  top 
of  the  hill  into  which  the  tunnels  extended  appeared  to  be  com- 
pletely drained. 

Early  in  the  spring,  when  the  snow  was  melting,  they  afforded 
a  considerable  supply;  but  in  the  summer,  when  water  was  most 
needed,  the  tunnels  furnished  but  feeble  streams  and  these  were 
much  impregnated  with  minerals,  one  of  the  least  feared  of 
which  was  arsenic.  The  ladies  rather  liked  arsenic,  as  it  im- 

231 


232  TAPPING  THE  HILLS. 

proved  their  complexion ;  made  them  fair  and  rosy-cheeked — 
almost  young  again,  some  of  them.  The  miners  did  not  object 
to  arsenic;  as,  while  it  did  not  injure  their  complexion,  it 
strengthened  their  lungs — made  them  str.ong-winded,  and  able 
to  scale  mountains.  (Every  man  of  them  hungered  to  hunt  the 
wild  chamois.)  But  there  were  other  minerals  held  in  solution 
in  the  water — those  that  caused  diarrhoea  for  instance — that 
were  not  so  well  thought  of. 

The  nearer  hills  having  thus  been  drained,  tunnels  were  run 
into  such  of  those  further  away  as  were  of  sufficient  altitude  to 
permit  of  streams  from  them  being  brought  to  the  two  towns 
These  tunnels  were  run  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  find  water. 
A  hill  was  examined  with  a  view  to  its  water-producing  capac- 
ity. It  was  found  that  those  which  rose  up  in  a  single  sharp  or 
rounded  peak  were  not  rich  in  water.  The  best  water-producers 
were  hills  on  the  tops  of  which  there  were  large  areas  of  flat 
ground.  That  portion  of  a  range  of  mountains  which  contained 
on  the  summit  a  large  shallow  basin  surrounded  by  clusters  of 
hills  or  peaks  was  found  to  yield  largely  and  for  a  long  time, 
when  tapped  by  a  tunnel  run  under  the  basin  or  sink  at  the 
depth  of  three  or  four  hundred  feet. 

Dams  were  constructed  across  the  outlets  of  these  basins  to 
hold  back  the  water  from  the  melting  snow,  in  order  that  it  might 
filter  down  through  the  earth  to  the  tunnels.  At  the  mouths  of 
the  tunnels  heavy  bulkheads  of  timbers  and  plank  were  con- 
structed, to  keep  back  and  dam  up  the  water  where  it  could  be 
kept  cool  and  pure.  Where  deep  shafts  stood  near  the  line  of 
these  tunnels,  ditches  were  dug  to  them  along  the  sides  of  the 
hills,  and  the  water  formed  by  the  melting  of  the  snow  in  the 
spring  was  let  into  thejii.  All  manner  of  devices,  in  short,  were 
resorted  to  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  in  and  upon  the  hills  all 
of  the  moisture  from  snow  or  rains  that  fell  upon  them.  Yet 
one  after  another  these  hills  failed.  When  once  the  tops  had  been 
thoroughly  drained  it  appeared  to  require  all  of  the  water  that 
fell  on  them  in  any  shape  during  winter  to  reach  down  into  and 
moisten  them  to  the  level  of  the  tunnels.  Finally,  there  were  in 
all  many  miles  of  these  horizontal  wells.  All  the  hills  from 
which  water  could  be  brought,  for  miles  away  to  the  northward 
and  southward  of  Virginia  and  Gold  Hill,  were  tapped,  thousands. 


WHA  T  MR.  SCHUSSLER  DID.  233 

on  thousands  of  dollars  being  expended  in  this  work.  When  a 
reservoir  of  water  was  first  tapped  in  a  new  hill  there  would  be 
poured  out  a  great  flood  for  a  few  days;  this  would  then  fall  to 
a  moderate  stream  and  so  remain  for  a  month  or  two,  when  it 
would  begin  to  dwindle  away.  The  water  from  the  many 
tunnels  was  collected  by  means  of  small  wooden  flumes  or 
troughs,  winding  about  the  curves  of  the  hills  for  miles,  and  in 
summer,  when  most  wanted,  the  sickly  streams  from  the  more 
distant  tunnels  were  lost  by  leakage  and  evaporation  before 
having  finished  half  their  course  to  the  towns. 

Virginia  City  and  Gold  Hill  were  frequently  placed  upon  a 
short  allowance  of  water,  and  it  was  seen  that  a  great  water 
famine  must  soon  prevail  in  both  towns,  in  case  the  tunnels  that 
had  been  run  into  the  mountains  were  depended  upon  for  a  supply. 
The  Virginia  and  Gold  Hill  Water  Company  then  determined  to 
bring  a  supply  of  pure  water  from  the  streams  and  lakes  of  the 
Sierra  Nevada  Mountains — from  the  regions  of  eternal  snow. 

The  distance  from  Virginia  City  to  the  first  available  streams 
in  the  Sierras  was  about  twenty-five  miles  ;  but  between  the  Vir- 
ginia range  of  mountains  and  the  Sierras,  lay  the  deep  depression 
known  as  Washoe  Valley, — in  one  part  of  which  is  situated 
Washoe  Lake.  The  problem  to  be  solved  in  bringing  water 
from  the  Sierras  to  Virginia  City  was  how  to  convey  it  across  this 
deep  valley. 

Mr.  H.  Schussler,  the  engineer  under  whose  supervision  the 
Spring  Valley  Water  Works,  of  San  Francisco,  were  constructed, 
was  sent  for,  and  crossing  the  Sierras  he  made  an  examination  of 
the  route  over  which  it  was  proposed  to  bring  the  water.  He 
acknowledged  that  the  undertaking  was  one  of  great  difficulty. 
To  convey  the  water  across  the  deep  depression  formed  by 
Washoe  Valley  would  demand  the  performing  of  a  feat  in 
hydraulic  engineering  never  before  attempted  in  any  part  of  the 
world.  This  was  to  carry  the  water  through  an  iron  pipe  under 
a  perpendicular  pressure  of  1,720  feet.  This  feat,  however,  Mr. 
Schussler  said  could  be  performed,  and  he  was  ready  to  under- 
take it  at  once. 

Surveys  were  made,  in  the  spring  of  1872,  and  orders  given  for 
the  manufacture  of  the  pipe.  To  make  the  pipe  was  the  work  of 
nearly  a  year.  The  manufacturers  were  furnished  with  a  diagram 


234:  THE  BIG  WA  TER-PIPE. 

of  the  line  on  which  it  was  to  be  laid  and  each  section  was 
made  to  fit  a  certain  spot.  When  the  route  lay  round  a  point  of 
rocks  the  pipe  was  made  of  the  required  curve,  and  other 
curved  sections  were  required  when  the  line  crossed  deep  and 
narrow  ravines. 

The  first  section  of  pipe  was  laid,  June  nth,  1873,  and  the 
last  on  the  25th,  of  July  the  same  year.  The  whole  length  of  the 
pipe  is  seven  miles  and  one  hundred  and  thirty-four  feet.  Its 
interior  diameter  is  twelve  inches,  and  it  is  capable  of  deliver- 
ing 2,200,000  gallons  of  water  per  twenty-four  hours.  It  lies 
across  Washoe  Valley,  in  the  form  of  an  inverted  siphon.  The 
end  at  which  the  water  is  received  rests  upon  a  spur  from  the 
main  Sierras,  at  an  elevation  of  1885  feet  above  Washoe  Valley. 
The  outlet  is  on  the  crest  of  the  Virginia  range  of  mountains, 
on  the  eastern  slope  of  which  are  situated  the  towns  of  Virginia 
and  Gold  Hill.  The  perpendicular  elevation  of  the  inlet  above 
the  outlet  is  465  feet.  Thus  is  brought  to  bear  a  great  pressure 
which  forces  the  water  rapidly  through  the  pipe. 

The  water  is  brought  to  the  inlet  through  a  large  wooden 
flume,  and  at  the  outlet  is  delivered  into  a  similar  flume,  twelve 
miles  in  length,  which  conveys  it  to  Virginia  City.  The  pipe  is 
of  wrought  iron,  and  is  fastened  by  three  rows  of  5-8  inch  rivets. 
At  the  lowest  point  in  the  ground  crossed,  the  perpendicular 
pressure  is  1,720  feet,  equal  to  800  pounds  to  the  square  inch. 
Here  the  iron  is  5-16  of  an  inch  in  thickness,  but  as  the  ground 
rises  to  the  east  and  west,  and  the  pressure  is  reduced,  the  thick- 
ness of  the  iron  decreases  through  1-4,  3-16,  down  to  1-16. 

In  its  course,  the  pipe  crosses  thirteen  deep  gulches,  making 
necessary  that  number  of  undulations,  as  it  is  throughout  its 
length  laid  at  the  depth  of  2  1-2  feet  below  the  surface  of  the 
earth.  Besides  these,  there  are  a  great  number  of  lateral  curves 
round  hills  and  points  of  rocks.  There  was  just  one  place  and 
none  other  for  each  section  of  pipe  as  received  from  the  manu- 
factory. At  each  point  where  there  is  a  depression  in  the  pipe 
there  is  a  blow-off  cock,  for  the  removal  of  any  sediment  that 
may  collect,  and  on  the  top  of  each  ridge  is  an  air-cock,  for 
blowing  off  the  air  when  the  water  was  first  let  in,  and  at  other 
times  when  the  pipe  is  being  filled.  The  pipe  contains  no  less 
than  i,  1 5  0,000  pounds  of  rolled  iron;  is  held  together  by  1,000,000 


TESTING  THE  SIPHON.  235 

rivets,  and  there  were  used  in  securing  the  joints  52,000  pounds 
of  lead,  which  was  melted  and  poured  in  from  a  portable  furnace 
that  moved  along  the  line  as  the  work  of  laying  the  pipe-pro- 
gressed. Before  being  put  down,  each  section  of  pipe  was  boiled 
in  a  bath  of  asphaltum  and  coal-tar,  at  a  temperature  of  380 
degrees.  At  the  first  filling  of  the  pipe  a  stream  of  water,  about 
the  thickness  of  a  common  lead-pencil,  escaped  through  the  lead 
packing  of  a  joint,  at  a  point  where  the  pressure  was  greatest. 
This  struck  against  the  face  of  a  rock,  and,  rebounding,  played 
upon  the  upper  side  of  the  pipe.  The  water  brought  with  it 
from  the  rock  a  small  quantity  of  sand  or  grit,  perhaps,  but  at 
all  events  it  soon  bored  a  hole  through  the  top  of  the  pipe,  and 
from  this  hole,  which  shortly  became  two  or  three  inches  in 
diameter,  a  jet  of  water  ascended  to  the  height  of  two  hundred 
feet  or  more,  spreading  out  in  the  shape  of  a  fan  toward  the  top. 

When  this  break  occurred,  a  signal  smoke  was  made  in  the 
valley,  and  the  lookout  at  the  inlet  of  the  pipe  on  the  mountain 
spur  shut  off  the  water.  Over  each  joint  in  the  pipe  was  placed 
a  cast-iron  sleeve  or  band,  weighing  300  pounds,  and  within  this 
sleeve  was  poured  the  molten  lead  which  served  as  packing.  In 
all  there  were  used  1,475  or  442>5°°  pounds  of  these  sleeves, 
and  but  three  out  of  the  whole  number  proved  faulty,  and  failed 
to  sustain  the  strain  brought  upon  them,  and  of  12,640  sheets  of 
iron  used  in  the  pipe,  but  one  bad  one  was  found.  As  it  would 
have  been  a  great  task  to  test  each  section  of  the  pipe  by 
hydraulic  pressure  at  the  manufactory,  the  engineer  proposed  to 
bring  the  whole  under  the  required  strain  at  once,  after  they 
were  put  down.  He  began  the  pressure  with  a  perpendicular 
height  of  1,250  feet  in  the  column  of  water;  increased  it  to 
1,550,  to  1,700,  and  finally  to  1,850,  being  130  feet  more  than 
the  pipe  would  be  required  to  sustain  when  in  actual  use. 

During  these  experiments,  men  were  stationed  at  the  inlet  of 
the  pipe,  at  its  outlet  on  the  summit  of  the  Virginia  range,  and 
at  various  points  through  the  valley,  as  lookout  men.  They 
made  their  signals  by  means  of  a  smoke  during  the  day,  and  a 
fire  by  night — a  trick  learned  from  the  Piute  Indians. 

As  the  water  came  surging  down  through  the  great  inverted 
siphon  from  the  elevated  mountain  spur,  and  began  to  fill  and 
press  upon  the  parts  lying  in  the  deeper  portions  of  the  valley, 


236  GREA  T  REJOICINGS. 


one  after  another  the  blow-off  cocks  on  the  crests  of  the  ridges 
crossed,  opened,  and  allowed  the  escape  of  the  compressed  air. 
Compared  with  what  was  heard  when  these  cocks  blew  off,  the 
blowing  of  a  whale  was  a  mere  whisper.  The  water  finally 
flowed  through  the  pipe  and  reached  Gold  Hill  and  Virginia 
City  on  the  night  of  August  i,  1873.  Early  that  evening  a 
signal  fire  was  lighted  in  the  mountains  at  the  inlet  of  the  pipe, 
showing  that  the  water  had  again  been  turned  on. 

As  the  pipe  filled,  the  progress  of  the  water  in  it  could  be 
traced  by  the  blowihg  off  of  the  air  on  the  tops  of  the  ridges 
through  the  valley,  and  at  last,  to  the  great  joy  of  the  engineer 
and  all  concerned  in  the  success  of  the  enterprise,  the  signal 
fire  at  the  outlet,  on  the  summit  of  the  Virginia  range,  was  for 
the  first  time  lighted,  showing  that  the  water  was  flowing  through 
the  whole  length  of  the  pipe. 

When  the  water  reached  Virginia  there  was  great  rejoicing. 
Cannon  were  fired,  bands  of  music  paraded  the  streets,  and 
rockets  were  sent  up  all  over  the  city.  Many  persons  went  out 
and  filled  bottles  with  this  first  water  from  the  Sierras,  and  a 
bottle  of  it  is  still  preserved  in  the  cabinet  of  the  Pacific  Coast 
Pioneers. 

Previous  to  the  laying  of  this  pipe  for  the  Virginia  and  Gold 
Hill  Water  Company,  the  greatest  pressure  under  which  water 
had  ever  been  carried  in  any  part  of  the  world  was  910  feet. 
This  was  at  Cherokee  Flat,  California,  and  was  also  under  the 
supervision  of  Mr.  Schussler. 

In  1875,  the  Virginia  and  Gold  Hill  Water  Company  laid  a 
second  pipe  alongside  of  the  first.  This  has  an  inside  diameter 
of  ten  inches.  Instead  of  being  fastened  with  rivets  it  is  lap- 
welded,  and  is  the  largest  pipe  ever  made  in  that  way.  As  there 
are  no  rivet-heads  in  it  to  produce  friction,  it  delivers  the  same 
amount  of  water  as  the  larger  pipe,  namely,  2,200,000  gallons 
per  twenty-four  hours. 

Previous  to  1875,  the  supply  of  water  was  principally  obtained 
from  a  stream  known  as  Hobart  Creek,  but,  in  the  year  named, 
the  works  in  the  mountains  were  extended  by  pushing  the  supply 
flume  through  to  Marlette  Lake,  within  the  basin  of  Lake  Tahoe, 
a  distance  of  eight  and  a  half  miles,  and  a  total  distance  from 
Virginia  City  of  thirty-one  and  a  half  miles.  In  order  to  reach 


THE   WORK  COMPLETED.  237 

and  tap  Marietta  Lake  it  was  necessary  in  one  place  to  run  a 
tunnel  3,000  feet  in 'length  under  a  dividing  ridge — the  ridge 
forming  the  rim  of  the  Lake  Tahoe  basin.  Marlette  Lake 
covers  over  300  acres  of  ground,  and  in  the  middle  is  30  or  40 
feet  in  depth. 

Connected  with  the  works  are  several  reservoirs  that  hold 
from  three  million  to  ten  million  gallons  of  water.  Signal  fires 
are  no  longer  necessary  along  the  line  of  the  works,  as  there  is 
now  set  up  a  line  of  printing  telegraph,  with  numerous  stations 
between  Virginia  City  and  Marlette  Lake.  Marlette  Lake  lies 
at  an  altitude  of  1,500  feet  above  C  street,  Virginia  City,  and 
the  water  is  brought  in  at  such  a  height  above  the  town  that  it 
can  everywhere  be  carried  far  above  the  highest  buildings,  and 
streams  from  the  hydrants  are  thrown  with  great  force  and  effect 
in  case  of  a  fire  occurring  near  them. 

There  is  now  not  only  an  ample  supply  of  water  in  the  city 
for  all  town  and  domestic  uses,  but  also  for  the  boilers  of  the 
many  hoisting  works,  and  for  use  in  the  several  mills  where  the 
ores  of  the  Comstock  mines  are  reduced.  The  cost  of  the  water- 
works was  over  two  million  dollars. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

HOW   WOOD    IS   CUT    IN    THE    SIERRAS. 

THE  Comstock  lode  may  truthfully  be  said  to  be  the  tomb 
of  the  forests  of  the  Sierras.  Millions  on  millions  of 
feet  of  lumber  are  annually  buried  in  the  mines,  never- 
more to  be  resurrected.  When  once  it  is  planted  in  the  lower 
levels  it  never  again  sees  the  light  of  day.  The  immense 
bodies  of  timber  now  being  entombed  along  the  Comstock, 
will  probably  be  discovered  some  thousands  of  years  hence,  by 
the  people  to  be  born  in  a  future  age,  in  the  shape  of  huge  beds 
of  coal,  and  the  geologists  of  that  day  will  say  that  this  coal 
or  lignite  came  from  large  deposits  of  driftwood  at  the  bottom 
of  a  lake;  that  there  came  a  grand  upheaval,  and  Mount  Da- 
vidson arose,  carrying  the  coal  with  it  on  its  eastern  slope. 

Not  less  than  eighty  million  feet  of  timber  and  lumber  are 
annually  consumed  on  the  Comstock  lode.  In  a  single  mine — 
the  Consolidated  Virginia — timber  is  being  buried  at  the  rate 
of  six  million  feet  per  annum,  and  in  all  other  mines  in  like 
proportion.  At  the  same  time  about  250,000  cords  of  wood 
are  consumed. 

The  pine-forests  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains  are  drawn 
upon  for  everything  in  the  shape  of  wood  or  lumber,  and 
have  been  thus  drawn  upon  for  many  years.  For  a  distance 
of  fifty  or  sixty  miles  all  the  hills  of  the  eastern  slope  of 
the  Sierras  have  been  to  a  great  extent  denuded  of  trees  of 
every  kind ;  those  suitable  only  for  wood  as  well  as  those  fit 
for  the  manufacture  of  lumber  for  use  in  the  mines.  Already 
the  lumbermen  are  not  only  extending  their  operations  to  a 
greater  distance  north  and  south  along  the  great  mountain 

238 


THE  FORESTS  OF  THE  SIERRAS.  239 

range,  but  are  also  beginning  to  reach  over  to  the  western 
slope — over  to  the  California  side  of  the  range. 

Long  since,  all  the  forests  on  the  lower  hills  of  the  Nevada 
side  of  the  mountains  that  could  be  reached  by  teams,  were 
swept  away,  when  the  lumbermen  began  to  scale  the  higher 
hills,  felling  the  trees  thereon,  and  rolling  or  sliding  the  logs 
down  to  flats  whence  they  could  be  hauled.  The  next  move- 
ment was  to  erect  saw-mills  far  up  in  the  mountains,  and  to 
construct  from  these,  large  flumes  leading  down  into  the 
valleys,  through  which  to  float  wood,  lumber,  and  timber. 
Some  of  these  flumes  are  over  twenty  miles  in  length,  and  are 
very  substantial  structures,  costing  from  $20,000  to  $250,000 
each.  They  are  built  on  a  regular  grade,  and,  in  order  to 
maintain  this  grade,  wind  round  hills,  pass  along  the  sides 
of  steep  mountains,  and  cross  deep  canons;  reared,  in  many 
places,  on  trestle-work  of  great  height. 

These  flumes  are  made  so  large  that  timbers  sixteen  inches 
square  and  twenty  or  thirty  feet  in  length  may  be  floated 
down  in  them.  In  a  properly  constructed  flume,  timbers  of  a 
large  size  are  floated  by  a  very  small  head  of  water ;  and  not 
alone  single  logs,  but  long  processions  of  them.  Timbers, 
wood,  lumber — in  fact,  all  that  will  float — is  carried  away  as 
fast  as  thrown  in.  When  a  stick  of  timber  or  a  plank  has 
been  placed  in  the  flume,  then  ends  all  the  expense  of  trans- 
portation, as,  without  further  attention,  it  is  dumped  in  the 
valley — twenty  miles  away,  perhaps.  By  means  of  these 
flumes,  tens  of  thousands  of  acres  of  timber-land  are  made 
available,  that  could  never  have  been  reached  by  teams. 

In  some  places,  where  the  ground  is  very  steep,  there  are  to 
be  seen  what  are  called  gravitation  flumes,  down  which  wood 
is  sent  without  the  aid  of  water.  These,  however,  are  merely 
straight  chutes,  running  from  the  top  to  the  bottom  of  a  single 
hill  or  range  of  hills.  In  places,  they  are  of  great  use,  as 
through  them  wood  may  be  sent  down  within  reach  of  the 
main  water-flume  leading  to  the  valley.  Nearly  all  of  the 
flumes  have  their  dumps  near  the  line  of  the  Virginia  and 
Truckee  Railroad,  or  some  of  its  branches  or  side-tracks,  and 
in  these  dumps  are  at  times  to  be  seen  thousands  upon  thou- 
sands of  cords  of  wood  and  millions  of  feet  of  lumber. 
14 


24:0  A  DARING  LEAP. 


In  some  localities  a  kind  of  chute  is  in  use,  made  by  laying 
down  a  line  of  heavy  timbers  in  such  shape  as  to  form  a  sort 
of  trough.  Down  these  tracks  or  troughs  are  slid  huge  logs. 
When  the  troughs  are  steep,  the  logs  rush  down  at  more  than 
railroad  speed,  leaving  behind  them  a  trail  of  fire  and  smoke. 
Such  log-ways  are  generally  to  be  seen  about  the  lakes,  and 
are  so  contrived  that  the  logs  leap  from  them  into  water  of 
great  depth,  as  otherwise  they  would  be  shivered  to  pieces 
and  spoiled  for  use  in  the  manufacture  of  lumber.  Occasion- 
ally, in  summer,  a  daring  lumberman  mounts  a  large  log  at 
the  top  of  one  of  these  chutes,  high  up  the  mountain,  and 
darting  down  at  lightning  speed,  with  hair  streaming  in  the 
breeze,  takes  a  wild  leap  of  twenty  or  thirty  feet  into  the 
lake.  In  one  place,  in  order  to  obtain  a  supply  of  water 
sufficient  to  run  two  lumber-flumes,  a  tunnel  was  run  a 
distance  of  2,100  feet  at  a  cost  of  $30,000.  This  tunnel  passed 
through  a  ridge,  and  tapped  a  lake  lying  within  the  basin  of 
Lake  Tahoe. 

Yerington,  Bliss,  &  Co.,  one  of  the  heaviest  lumbering  firms 
in  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains,  have  built  a  narrow-gauge 
railroad  from  their  saw-mills  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Tahoe  to 
the  head  of  Clear  Creek,  on  the  first  or  eastern  summit  of  the 
Sierras.  The  road  is  eight  miles  in  length,  and  is  used  in  the 
transportation  of  lumber  from  the  mills  of  the  company  to 
their  large  flume  at  the  head  of  Clear  Creek.  This  railroad 
passes  through  a  tunnel  500  feet  in  length,  which  was  the 
only  tunnel  and  the  heaviest  piece  of  work  on  the  road. 

Logs  are  rafted  across  Lake  Tahoe  to  the  mills,  from  all 
points.  The  lake  being  of  great  size,  and  all  of  its  shores  and 
the  slopes  of  the  surrounding  mountains  being  heavily  tim- 
bered, the  company  have  command  of  a  vast  area  of  pine- 
forests.  Through  the  waters  of  the  lake  and  its  numerous 
bays,  they  reach  out  and  up  into  the  mountains  in  all  direc- 
tions, gathering  the  pines  into  their  mills,  carrying  them,  in 
the  shape  of  lumber,  up  their  railroad,  and  then  shooting  them 
through  their  big  flume  down  over  all  the  hills  till  they  land 
in  Carson  Valley. 

This  is  all  very  well  for  the  company  and  for  the  mining 
companies,  who  must  have  lumber  and  timber,  but  it  is  going 


LOG  RIDING 


LUMBERING  AT  LAKE  TAHOE. 


THE  RAFTS  ON  LAKE  TAHOE.  34.3 

to  make  sad  work,  ere  long,  with  the  picturesque  hills  sur- 
rounding Lake  Tahoe,  the  most  beautiful  of  all  the  lakes  in 
the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains.  Where  tall  pines  now  "shade 
all  the  shores  and  wave  on  all  the  mountain  slope,  nought 
will  shortly  be  seen,  save  decaying  stumps  and  naked  granite 
rocks.  But  timber  and  lumber  are  imperatively  demanded, 
and  the  forests  of  not  only  these  hills  but  of  a  thousand  others, 
will  doubtless  be  sacrificed. 

The  rafts  of  logs  are  towed  across  the  lake  by  small  steam- 
boats. This  rafting  is  of  a  novel  character.  The  logs  forming 
the  raft  are  not  pinned  or  in  any  way  fastened  together.  The 
steamboat  runs  up  to  a  bay  or  other  place  where  logs  are 
lying,  and  casts  anchor.  A  boat  is  then  sent  out  which 
carries  a  long  cable  strung  full  of  large  buoys.  This  cable  is 
carried  round  a  proper  fleet  of  logs,  as  a  seine  is  carried 
round  a  school  of  fish.  The  steamer  then  weighs  anchor  and 
starts  across  the  lake,  towing  along  all  the  logs  about  which 
the  cable  has  been  cast.  No  matter  how  rough  the  lake  may 
be,  the  logs  remain  in  a  bunch,  being  attracted  the  one  to  the 
other,  and  clinging  together  as  bits  of  stick  and  chips  are 
often  seen  to  do  when  floating  on  a  lake  or  stream. 

On  the  side  of  the  lake  opposite  the  mills  of  Yerington, 
Bliss,  Sa  Co.,  a  man  who  has  a  contract  for  delivering  logs 
in  the  water  ready  for  rafting,  does  his  "logging"  with  a 
locomotive.  He  has  laid  a  railroad  track,  some  six  miles  in 
length,  through  the  heaviest  part  of  the  forest,  and  instead  of 
hauling  the  logs  to  the  lake  with  oxen,  in  the  old-fashioned 
way,  rolls  them  upon  low  trucks,  and  hauls  a  whole  train  of 
them  away  at  once,  with  his  locomotive. 

At  the  edge  of  the  lake  the  track  is  laid  under  water  for  a 
considerable  distance,  and  the  train  being  run  upon  this  track, 
the  logs  are  floated  off  the  low  cars,  and  are  ready  for  rafting. 

Other  large  mills  besides  those  of  the  company  named,  are 
engaged  in  devouring  the  forest  surrounding  Lake  Tahoe. 
About  five  million  feet  of  lumber  per  month  are  turned  out 
by  the  several  mills  at  the  lake,  and  each  summer  about  three 
million  feet  of  timbers  are  hewn  in  that  locality.  Many  of 
the  sugar-pine  trees  about  Lake  Tahoe  are  five,  six,  and 
some  even  eight  feet,  in  diameter ;  all  are  very  tall  and  straight. 


244  DESCENDING  THE  FL  UMES. 

At  a  point  in  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains,  about  eleven 
miles  from  the  town  of  Reno,  on  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad, 
Messrs.  Mackay  &  Fair  have  a  lumber-flume  over  twenty- 
miles  in  length.  This  flume  was  built  through  an  exceed- 
ingly rugged  region,  and  cost  $250,000.  It  taps  a  tract  of 
twelve  thousand  acres  of  heavy  pine-forest  owned  by  the 
parties  named.  The  land  is  estimated  to  contain  500,000 
cords  of  wood,  100,000,000  feet  of  saw-logs,  and  30,000,000  feet 
of  hewn  timber;  all  of  which  will  be  brought  down  to  the 
Virginia  and  Truckee  Railroad,  through  the  flume.  A  print- 
ing telegraph  extends  along  the  whole  line  of  the  flume,  by 
means  of  which  orders  are  transmitted  to  all  points. 

There  are  a  great  number  of  these  flumes  reaching  up  into 
the  Sierras  from  the  valleys  of  Nevada,  and  soon  it  will  be 
necessary  to  build  railroads  to  haul  the  lumber  up  to  the 
heads  of  these  from  the  California  side  of  the  mountains,  as 
has  been  done  by  Yerington,  Bliss,  &  Co.  No  means  of  trans- 
porting wood,  lumber,  and  timber  is  or  can  be  cheaper  than 
these  flumes.  When  once  a  plank  or  stick  of  wood  has  been 
dropped  in  at  the  head  of  the  flume  it  is  already  as  good  as  at 
the  other  end,  twenty  or  thirty  miles  away.  The  flumes  are 
far  ahead  of  railroads  of  any  gauge,  broad  or  narrow,  as  a 
means  of  cheap  transportation  for  wood  and  lumber. 

Each  season,  from  80,000  to  100,000  cords  of  wood  are 
floated  down  the  Carson  River.  This  wood  is  cut  high  up  in 
the  Sierras,  at  the  head-waters  of  the  Carson  and  its  tribu- 
taries, and  is  sent  down  from  the  mountain  slopes  for  many 
miles,  in  flumes  of  the  same  kind  as  those  in  use  for  the  trans- 
portation of  lumber.  The  wood  is  collected  on  the  banks  of 
the  river,  ready  to  be  launched  at  the  proper  and  auspicious 
moment. 

Contrary  to  what  most  persons  would  suppose,  the  proper 
time  for  starting  one  of  these  drives  of  eighty  or  one  hundred 
thousand  cords  of  wood,  is  not  when  there  is  a  big  freshet, 
'but  at  the  falling  of  the  stream  after  a  freshet ;  that  is,  on  the 
heels  of  a  grand  overflow.  If  the  wood  be  put  into  the  river 
at  a  time  when  its  waters  are  over  the  banks,  it  floats  away 
into  the  flats  and  out  over  the  valleys,  whence  it  is  almost 
impossible,  but  at  too  great  cost,  to  get  it  back  into  the 


VANISHING  FORESTS.  245 

channel,  and  thus  it  is  as  good  as  lost.  The  lumbermen  are 
for  this  reason  careful  not  to  put  their  wood  into  the  river 
while  there  is  danger  of  there  occurring  a  sudden  flood,~which 
would  lift  it  above  the  banks  and  scatter  it  broadcast  over  the 
country. 

The  time  for  starting  the  drive  is  just  after  the  great  flood 
of  the  season — after  the  thaw  which  sweeps  the  greater  part 
of  the  snow  from  the  mountains.  Then  the  wood  comes  down 
huddled  in  the  channel,  and  covering  the  whole  surface  of  the 
water,  for  fifty  miles  or  more.  At  points  where  there  are 
sloughs  or  bayous  leading  out  of  the  river,  booms  are  stretched 
to  keep  the  wood  in  the  straight  and  narrow  way.  French 
Canadian  lumbermen  and  Piute  Indians  are  generally  em- 
ployed in  making  these  drives.  As  the  wood  must  be  fol- 
lowed up  and  kept  movjng,  it  is  a  wet  and  laborious  business. 

The  time  is  not  far  distant  when  the  whole  of  that  part  of 
the  Sierra  Nevada  range  lying  adjacent  to  the  Nevada  silver- 
mining  region  will  be  utterly  denuded  of  trees  of  every  kind. 
Already,  one  bad  effect  of  this  denudation  is  seen  in  the 
summer  failure  of  the  water  in  the  Carson  River.  The  first 
spell  of  hot  weather  in  the  spring  now  sweeps  nearly  all  the 
snow  from  the  mountains,  and  sends  it  down  into  the  valleys 
in  one  grand  flood ;  whereas,  while  the  mountains  were  thickly 
clad  with  pines,  the  melting  of  the  snow  was  gradual,  and 
there  was  a  good  volume  of  water  in  the  river  throughout  the 
summer  and  fall  months. 

The  prevailing  breezes  in  Nevada  are  from  the  west — indeed 
the  wind  seldom  blows  from  any  other  quarter  than  the  west 
— which  is  directly  over  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains.  In 
passing  over  the  fields  of  snow,  on  the  summit  of  the  Sierras, 
the  breezes  are  cooled,  and  the  summer  weather  in  Nevada  is 
thus  rendered  delightful.  But  when  once  the  mountains  shall 
have  been  denuded  of  their  timber,  all  the  snow  on  both  slopes 
will  be  swept  away  by  the  first  warm  weather  of  spring — as  it 
is  now  swept  away  on  the  eastern  slope — when  a  marked  in- 
crease in  the  heat  of  the  summers  in  Nevada  is  likely  to  be 
experienced. 

Railroads  are  being  pushed,  both  north  and  south,  along  the 
eastern  base  of  the  Sierras,  with  no  other  object  than  to  strip 


246  COAL  DEPOSITS  OF  NEVADA. 

the  mountains  of  the  forests  in  which  they  are  now  clothed, 
in  the  course  of  time.  We  may  therefore  look  to  see  the  whole 
range  lying  bare  in  the  sun.  When  this  shall  come  to  pass, 
the  Great  Basin  region  to  the  eastward  will  be  a  perfect  fur- 
nace in  summer. 

There  must  come  a  day  when  wood  will  be  scarce  and  dear, 
and  some  other  fuel  must  be  found.  Coal  from  the  Rocky 
Mountains  is  now  extensively  used  at  Virginia  City,  but  it 
costs  about  as  much  as  wood.  The  problem  may  be  solved  in  a 
wonderful  deposit  of  lignite  recently  opened  by  the  Virginia 
City  Coal  Company,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  mine  will 
prove  to  be  all  that  it  now  promises. 

This  coal  deposit  is  on  El  Dorado  Canon,  eleven  miles  from 
Dayton,  ten  from  Carson  City,  and  seventeen  from  Virginia 
City.  Such  an  extensive  deposit  of  lignite  as  this  has  sel- 
dom been  found  in  any  country.  There  are  two  strata  of  it, 
each  fifteen  feet  in  thickness.  The  first  vein  was  cut  at  the 
depth  of  forty  feet,  and  forty  feet  below  this  was  found  the 
second  stratum,  of  the  same  thickness  (fifteen  feet)  as  that 
above.  Both  veins  dip  to  the  southwest,  at  an  inclination  of 
four  inches  per  foot,  under  a  mountain  of  great  size.  The 
company  have  erected  steam-hoisting  and  pumping  machi- 
nery, and  have  sunk  their  main  shaft  to  the  depth  of  180  feet, 
at  which  point  they  drifted  out  until  they  cut  their  lower  vein, 
at  a  point  460  feet  distant  from  the  bottom  of  the  shaft.  They 
then  followed  the  stratum  back  to  the  shaft,  for  the  purposes 
of  ventilation,  and  were  all  the  way  in  coal  of  an  excellent 
quality.  The  coal  burns  well  and  freely,  and  must  prove  of 
great  value  as  soon  as  it  can  be  cheaply  brought  to  the  several 
towns  where  it  is  needed,  as  it  appears  to  exist  in  almost 
inexhaustible  quantities.  A  narrow-gauge  railroad  is  to  be 
built  from  the  mine  to  the  neighboring  towns. 

One  or  two  mills  have  been  run  with  coal,  but  the  cost 
of  hauling  it  on  wagons  is  too  great  to  make  it  much  more 
economical  as  a  fuel  than  the  wood  and  coal  already  in  use. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 


IN  the  spring  of  1871,  there  sprang  into  existence  in  Virginia 
City,  a  secret  organization  known  as  "  Six  Hundred  and  One." 
It  was  a  "Vigilance  Committee  "  similar  to  that  organized  in 
San  Francisco  in  the  early  days.  The  object  of  the  organization 
in  Virginia  City,  as  far  as  is  known,  appears  to  have  been  the 
speedy  execution  of  persons  guilty  of  cold-blooded  murder,  and 
the  banishment  of  dangerous  men  from  the  city. 

At  the  time  "601  "  made  its  appearance,  there  were  frequent 
incendiary  fires,  many  murders  had  been  committed,  robberies 
were  common,  and  there  prevailed  an  unusual  amount  of  law- 
lessness. The  idea  of  those  belonging  to  the  organization  seems 
to  have  been  to  strike  terror  to  the  hearts  of  evil-doers  by  the 
summary  punishment  of  desperate  characters  who,  with  little  or 
no  provocation,  killed  peaceable  citizens. 

"  Six  Hundred  and  One  "  was  so  quietly  and  secretly  organ- 
ized that  it  appeared  to  spring  into  existence  in  a  single  night. 
The  first  that  was  publicly  known  of  the  organization  was  on  the 
night  of  March  24,  1871,  when  Arthur  Perkins  Heffernan,  who, 
a  short  time  before,  had  shot  down  a  man  in  cold  blood  at  the 
bar  of  the  saloon  in  the  principal  hotel  of  the  town,  was  taken 
from  the  County  Jail  and  hanged.  ^ 

In  the  morning,  when  the  coroner  went  to  cut  down  the  body 
of  Arthur  Perkins,  as  he  was  commonly  called,  there  was  found 
pinned  upon  it  a  paper  on  which  were  the  figures  "  601."  This 
was  taken  to  be  the  name  of  the  "  vigilante  "  organization,  and 
*'  601  "  it  has  ever  since  been  called.  It  is  supposed  to  be  still 
in  existence,  and  it  is  said  that  meetings  are  frequently  held,  in 

247 


248  "WHAT'S  UP? 


which  the  "  situation  "  is  discussed.  The  members  are  supposed 
to  be  leading  citizens  and  business  men  of  the  town,  but  just 
who  they  are  is  not  certainly  known,  as  they  always  appear  in 
masks  when  out  on  business.  Perkins  was  taken  from  the  jail 
and  hanged,  at  about  i  o'clock  in  the  morning.  The  majority  of 
the  residents  of  the  city  knew  nothing  of  the  occurrence  until 
they  arose,  yet  many  persons  were  still  on  the  streets  and  lingering 
about  the  saloons  and  other  places  of  public  resort,  and  not  a  few 
met  "  60 1  "  face  to  face,  greatly  to  their  astonishment. 

The  meaning  of  the  appearance  of  armed  and  masked  men  in 
the  streets  at  such  a  time  in  the  night  was  rightly  guessed  by 
most  persons,  as  soon  as  tney  had  time  for  reflection.  The 
members  of  the  organization  had  quietly  taken  possession  of  the 
armory  of  one  of  the  military  companies  of  the  town,  where  they 
armed  themselves  with  muskets  and  bayonets,  drew  on  their 
white  masks,  and  suddenly  sallied  forth. 

Their  first  move  was  to  place  a  strong  guard  at  the  four 
corners  of  the  streets  round  the  block  in  which  stood  the  jail. 
The  appearance  of  these  guards  at  the  street  corners  was  the 
first  intimation  that  the  people  of  the  town  had  that  anything 
unusual  was  transpiring.  Men  started  to  go  to  their  homes,  when 
they  suddenly  found  themselves  confronted  by  a  score  of  masked 
men,  who  brought  to  bear  upon  them  a  row  of  glittering  bayonets, 
and  said;  "  Go  back !  "  Most  persons  went  "  back  "  without  a 
word,  but  a  few  wanted  to  know  "  what's  up  !  "  and  "  what  was 
the  reason  they  could  not  pass  ?  "  when  they  were  again  told  to 
go  back  or  they  would  "  find  out  what  was  up  !  " 

Some  persons  after  being  thus  turned  back,  went  round  the 
block  and  tried  at  the  next  street  corner,  where  they  were  again 
met  by  a  glittering  array  of  bayonets  and  the  stern  order :  "  Go 
back !  " 

A  woman  who  happened  to  be  scouting  about  the  town  at  the 
unseemly  hour  when  the  net  was  drawn  about  the  block,  found 
herself  caught  in  it.  She  tried  every  corner  and,  at  each,  found 
a  row  of  bayonets  held  in  front  of  her. 

Not  a  word  was  spoken  anywhere,  and  this  silence  and  the 
sight  of  the  arms  and  masks  so  frightened  her  that  she  galloped 
about  at  a  very  lively  rate  for  a  time,  then  suddenly  disappeared, 
no  one  knew  whither.  Some  printers  also  going  home  from  their 


AFRAID !  249 


work  on  a  morning  paper,  were  halted,  and  their  foreman,  a  fussy, 
fidgetty  old  fellow,  recently  from  San  Francisco,  was  frightened 
nearly  out  of  his  wits.  When  he  found  half  a  dozen  bayonets  at 
his  breast,  and  saw  before  him  the  masked  faces,  he  was  sure  he 
had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  robbers. 

"  Don't  shoot !  for  God's  sake  don't  shoot !  "  he  cried.  "  I'm 
a  poor  miserable  old  printer  and  haven't  got  a  cent !  " 

Said  a  voice  :  "We  know  you,  you  old  fool.  You  only  want 
to  go  two  doors  above  here.  I  guess  we'll  just  escort  you !  " 
Then  turning  to  the  printers,  who  stood  back,  heartily  enjoying 
the  fright  of  their  foreman,  the  same  masked  man  said  :  "  Come 
on  boys,  you  lodge  in  the  same  house,  I  believe !  " 

Four  or  five  men  stepped  out  and  marched  the  printers  within 
the  lines,  seeing  them  to  and  through  their  own  door. 

"  Gentlemen,  will  we  be  quite  safe  here  ?  "  asked  the  still 
anxious  foreman,  thrusting  his  head  out  at  the  door,  after  it  was 
thought  he  was  secured  within. 

"You  are  safe  inside,"  said  one  of  the  masked  men,  "but  if 
you  come  out  again  we'll  blow  the  whole  top  of  your  head  off!  " 

The  head  instantly  disappeared. 

Every  few  minutes  some  belated  citizen  was  halted  and  turned 
back,  at  one  or  another  corner  of  the  beleagured  block,  giving 
him  an  opportunity  of  returning  to  his  favorite  saloon,  telling  of 
the  wonder  and  taking  another  drink.  The  armed  and  masked 
men  at  the  corners  were  all  that  any  one  saw ;  what  was  going  on 
within  the  guarded  square  no  one  knew,  but  all  were  able  to  make 
a  tolerably  correct  guess. 

Suddenly  the  heavy  boom  of  a  cannon  shook  the  town  and 
disturbed  the  stillness  of  the  night.  Instantly,  and  as  though  by 
magic,  the  armed  and  masked  men  disappeared  from  the  streets, 
going  no  one  knew  whither.  The  boom  of  the  cannon,  which 
was  fired  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  city,  at  an  old  military  post 
occupied  during  the  rebellion  by  a  provost  guard,  told  that 
Arthur  Perkins  was  no  more. 

While  the  masked  men  stood  on  guard  at  the  corners  of  the 
streets,  Perkins  was  hanged  in  the  western  suburb  of  the  city. 
It  appears  that  twenty  or  thirty  members  of  "601"  who  were 
within  the  lines,  quietly  went  to  the  Court-house,  and,  with  a  crow- 
bar, wrenched  open  the  front  door.  They  then  quickly  advanced 


250  LED  FORTH  TO  DEATH. 

to  the  private  office  and  sleeping-apartment  occupied  by  the 
sheriff  and  a  deputy.  These  officers  were  surprised  in  their  beds, 
their  weapons  were  secured,  and  the  keys  of  the  jail  and  cells 
taken  from  them.  All  the  rest  was  now  easily  done.  Arthur 
Perkins  and  a  man  who,  in  a  fit  of  jealousy,  had  shot  and 
wounded  his  wife,  occupied  the  same  cell.  When  the  heavy 
tramp  of  the  vigilantes  was  heard  in  the  outer  room,  Perkins 
suspected  its  meaning — 

"  They  have  come  for  me,"  said  he  to  his  companion.  "  I  may 
as  well  bid  you  good-bye  ;  this  is  my  last  night  on  earth  !  " 

When  the  masked  men  entered  the  room  in  wfiich  were  ranged 
the  cells,  they  advanced  to  that  occupied  by  Perkins,  and  un- 
locking the  door,  said  :  "  Come  out,  we  want  you." 

The  man  who  was  in  the  cell  with  Perkins  was  terribly  fright- 
ened. He  supposed  that  he,  also,  was  wanted — indeed  thought 
a  clean  sweep  of  all  in  the  jail  was  to  be  made.  He  started  to 
march  out  with  Perkins,  but  was  pushed  back,  one  of  the  men 
saying:  "Go  back!  we  don't  want  you."  These,  the  man 
afterwards  said,  were  the  most  comforting  words  he  ever  heard 
in  his  life.  In  his  excitement  Perkins  was  unable  to  get  on  one 
of  his  boots.  *'  "  Never  mind  the  boot,"  said  one  of  the  vigilantes, 
"  where  you  are  going  you  will  not  need  boots  !  ' 

Perkins  was  marched  by"  the  back  way  through  the  Court- 
house, was  hurried  to  a  point  near  the  old  Ophir  works,  and 
there,  when  a  convenient  timber  was  found,  was  hanged.  He 
stood  on  a  plank  placed  across  the  mouth  of  a  tunnel  and,  when 
the  fatal  moment  came,  did  not  wait  for  the  plank  to  be  pulled 
from  under  his  feet,  but  sprang  into  the  air  as  high  as  he  could 
leap,  in  order  to  fall  with  as  much  force  as  possible  and  thus  end 
his  life  quickly  and  with  little  pain. 

On  the  26th  of  September,  1846,  the  ship  Thomas  H.  Perkins 
sailed  from  New  York,  having  on  board  a  portion  of  Stevenson's 
regiment  of  California  volunteers.  The  Perkins  was  commanded 
by  Captain  Arthur,  and  Arthur  Perkins  Heffernan  was  born  on 
the  vessel  during  her  passage  between  New  York  and  Rio  de 
Janeiro.  He  was  named  after  the  vessel  and  her  captain.  His 
father  was  a  corporal  in  Company  F ;  F.  J.  Lippite  commanding ; 
his  mother  was  a  sister  of  the  notorious  robber,  Jack  Powers, 
who  was  also  at  that  time  a  member  of  company  F.  A  girl  was 


EXECUTION  OF  PERKINS. 


"ANOTHER  MAN  GONE!"  251 

born  on  the  ship  Thomas  H.  Perkins  about  the  same  time  that 
young  Heffernan  first  saw  the  light,  and  it  was  an  understood 
thing  by  those  on  board  the  vessel  that  this  girl,  calledr  Alta 
California,  should,  at  the  proper  age,  become  the  wife  of  Arthur 
Perkins  Heffernan, — an  event  that  never  came  to  pass.  Both 
children  were  baptized  at  Rio,  at  the  American  Embassy,  by  the 
chaplain  of  the  United  States'  ship  Columbia^  then  lying  in  Bra- 
zilian waters. 

On  the  i8th  of  July,  1871,  "  601  "  hanged  George  B.  Kirk,  a 
man  who  was  considered  a  very  bad  character,  who  had  killed  a 
man  in  California,  and  who  had  lately  been  released  from  the 
Nevada  State  Prison.  He  had  received  a  note  (ticket  of  leave, 
as  these  notes  came  to  be  called)  from  "  601,"  ordering  him  to 
leave  the  city.  He  left,  but  after  being  gone  some  time  ventured 
back.  Acquaintances  told  him  that  to  attempt  to  remain  in  the 
town  would  cost  him  his  life,  but  he  thought  otherwise. 

The  first  night  he  was  in  the  city  he  was  found  at  the  house  of 
a  female  acquaintance,  and,  at  about  n  o'clock,  he  was  captured 
by  "  601,"  placed  in  a  buggy,  and  taken  out  to  the  north  end  of 
the  town,  to  the  Sierra  Nevada  mining  works,  and  there  hanged 
from  the  timbers  of  a  flume.  Again  the  cannon  in  the  eastern 
part  of  the  city  boomed,  and  as  the  single,  heavy  shot  echoed 
through  the  mountains  those  who  heard  it  said  :  "  Ha !  Six 
Hundred  and  One  !  Another  man  gone  !  "  Had  Kirk  remained 
away  from  the  city  he  would  not  have  been  harmed.  When  he 
came  back  in  defiance  of  the  order  he  had  received,  commanding 
him  to  absent  himself  from  the  city,  the  vigilantes  found  it 
necessary  to  make  an  example  of  him,  as  otherwise  all  who  had 
received  "  tickets  of  leave  "  would  have  flocked  back  to  the  town. 

Since  the  hanging  of  Kirk,"  60 1  "  has  not  found  it  necessary  to 
"  deal  with  "  any  others  of  the  desperadoes  of  the  country.  A 
wholesome  fear  of  the  organization  is  felt.  All  know  that  a  man 
who  behaves  himself  in  even  a  half-way  decent  manner  is  in  no 
danger  from  the  vigilantes." 

As  the  reader  may  desire  to  know  what  the  regularly  consti- 
tuted authorities  do  in  the  case  of  an  execution  of  the  irregular 
character  of  those  of  "  601,"  I  give  the  verdict  of  the  coroner's 
jury  in  the  case  of  Kirk  : 

M  We  find  the  deceased  was  named  Geo.  B.  Kirk  ;  was  a  native  of  Jacksoa 


252  "  YOU  SEE  HE  STA  YED." 

county,  Missouri,  aged  about  36  years  ;  that  he  came  to  his  death  on  the  i8th 
day  of  July,  1871,  by  being  hanged  by  parties  unknown  to  us." 

The  morning  after  the  hanging,  when  Kirk's  remains  were 
lying  at  an  undertaking  establishment,  a-man  who  appeared  to 
be  a  stranger  in  the  city,  observing  something  of  a  crowd  about 
the  door,  approached,  and  looked  in  at  the  body  lying  in  the 
coffin. 

"  Man  dead  ?  "  asked  he  of  a  person  standing  near. 

"Yes,  sir;  "  shortly  answered  the  person  questioned. 

Fidgetting  a  little  the  stranger  tried  it  again  :  "  How  did  he 
die  ? " 

"  Hung."  was  the  laconic  reply.  • 

"  Hung  !     Ah,  hung  himself  ?  " 

"  No  sir,  he  was  hanged  by  *  601  ' — by  the  Vigilantes." 

"What  did  they  hang  him  for?  " 

"  He  had  been  notified  to  leave  town,  but  after  leaving  he 
came  back." 

"  When  a  man  has  been  notified  to  leave  the  town,  can't  he 
never  come  back  here  again  and  stay  ?  " 

"Yes,  sir." 

"  Yes  ?     Then  how  is  this  ?  " 

"  Well  he  came  back  and  " — pointing  to  the  coffin — '*  you  see 
ht  stayed" 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

THE    WASHOE     "  ZEPHYR." 

THE  "  zephyr  "  is  one  of  the  peculiar  institutions  of  Washoe, 
and  as  such  is  worthy  of  special  mention.  At  certain 
seasons — generally  in  the  fall  and  spring — furious  gales 
prevail  along  the  Comstock  range.  In  and  about  Virginia  City 
these  wind-storms  are  particularly  severe.  The  city  being  built 
on  the  eastern  slope  of  Mount  Davidson,  at  an  elevation  of  over 
6,000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  and  the  mountain  rising 
abruptly  above  the  city  on  the  west,  to  the  height  of  about  2,000 
feet  above  the  town,  fierce  whirls  and  "  sucks  "  are  formed  in  the 
lee  of  the  mountain. 

The  prevailing  winds  of  the  country  come  from  the  west,  and 
from  this  quarter  also  comes. the  "zephyr."  It  is  probably  a 
straight-ahead  gale  before  it  strikes  Mount  Davidson,  but  upon 
that  towering  mass  of  granite  it  splits.  Currents  pass  round 
the  north  and  south  sides  of  the  mountain,  meet  in  the  city? 
and  waltz  about  in  the  shape  of  whirlwinds  of  from  eighty  to 
two  hundred  horse-power.  To  complicate  things  still  more,  a 
third  portion  of  the  gale  comes  howling  directly  over  the  peak 
of  the  mountain,  and  plunges  down  into  the  town  among  the 
whirlwinds,  knocking  them  right  and  left  whenever  it  encounters 
them. 

It  is  no  doubt  this  particular  and  peculiar  current  of  the  gale 
whipping  down  over  the  summit  of  the  mountain,  that  produces 
the  remarkable  vertical  atmospheric  action  observable  during 
the  prevalence  of  a  first-class  zephyr.  A  breeze  of  this  kind 
will  snatch  a  man's  hat  off  his  head  and  take  it  vertically  a 
hundred  feet  into  the  air ;  then,  as  he  stands  gazing  after  it,  the 

253 


254  "ZEPHYR  BE  B LOWED." 

hat  suddenly  comes  down  at  his  feet,  as  though  shot  out  of  a 
cannon,  and  lies  before  him  as  completely  flattened  out  as  though 
it  had  been  struck  with  a  sledge-hammer. 

The  action  of  the  zephyr  is  sometimes  much  the  same  as  that 
seen  in  the  leathern  sucker  with  which  boys  are  able  to  lift 
stones  of  considerable  weight.  A  furious  gust  falls  upon  the 
flat  tin  roof  of  a  building,  then  suddenly  bounding  upward  rips 
a  great  hole  in  the  tin.  The  whirlwinds  and  winds  of  all  other 
"•  kinds — for  in  the  same  minute,  and  almost  at  the  same  instant, 
it  blows  fiercely  from  every  point  of  the  compass — then  enter 
the  hole,  seize  upon  the  roof,  and  very  soon  complete  its  wreck, 
A  section  of  tin  twenty  feet  square,  may  be  seen  to  flap  in  the 
air,  like  the  loose  sail  of  a  vessel  at  sea,  but  with  a  clashing 
sound  that  may  be  heard  a  mile  away ;  then,  on  a  sudden,  the 
whole  sheet  is  ripped  off,  and  goes  sailing  through  the  air  like  a 
piece  of  paper,  landing,  perhaps,  two  or  three  hundred  yards 
away,  and  passing  over  half  a  dozen  houses  during  its  flight. 

Of  late  these  "  zephyrs  "  have  not  been  so  furious  and  destruc- 
tive as  in  years  past.  Then  the  tin  on  half  a  dozen  roofs  was 
often  to  be  seen  flapping  in  the  breeze  at  the  same  moment, 
each  section  of  roofing  giving  out  a  roar  more  startling  than 
would  be  the  combined  sheet-iron  thunder  of  a  dozen  country 
theatres  of  average  enterprise. 

"  Sleep !  Sleep  no  more !  the  zephyr  doth  murder  sleep." 
After  a  night  of  such  wild  work,  the  stranger  within  the  gates  of 
Virginia  City  is  likely  to  make  his  appearance  very  early  in  the 
morning,  red-eyed  and  wrathy. 

I  remember  to  have  heard  a  gentleman  who  sported  a  bunch 
of  hair  on  each  cheek,  about  the  size  of  a  coyote's  tail,  thus 
express  himself  one  morning  after  such  an  elemental  carnival : 

"  Wind !  talk  about  wind  !  Why,  the  wind  'owled  at  such  a 
rate  last  night  that  I  thought  it  would  bring  the  bloody  'ouse 
down  about  my  ears.  Blast  it !  when  it  'owls  like  that  a  fellow 
can't  sleep,  you  know !  The  clark  o'  the  'otel  calls  it  a  Washoe 
zephyr — zephyr  be  blowed,  it  was  a  bloody  gale,  you  know  !  " 

Not  to  exaggerate,  I  may  say  that  one  of  the  good  old-fashioned 
Washoe  zephyrs,  even  in  the  present  condition  of  the  town,  not 
only  howls  itself,  but  also  makes  Virginia  City  howl,  and  would 
make  Rome  or  any  other  place  howl.  At  times  such  clouds  of 


A  JACKASS  ON  THE  WING.  255 

dust  are  raised,  that,  viewed  from  a  distance,  all  there  is  to  be 
seen  is  a  steeple  sticking  up  here  and  there,  a  few  scattering 
chimneys,  an  occasional  poodle-dog,  and,  perhaps,  a  stray-^nfant 
drifting  wrong  end  up,  high  above  all  the  house-tops.  Down 
below  in  the  darkness,  gravel-stones  are  flying  along  the  street 
like  grape-shot,  and  all  the  people  have  taken  refuge  in  the 
doorways. 

Such  ripping  of  signs,,  threshing  of  awnings,  rattling  and 
banging  of  iron  and  wooden  shutters — such  tumbling  about  of 
chimney-pots  and  sections  of  stovepipe,  is  seldom  seen  or  heard 
in  any  less  favored  town. 

Out  on  the  Divide,  a  high  part  of  the  city  where  the  wind  has 
a  fair  sweep  (this  is  generally  of  nights,  when  strangers  are  not 
likely  to  see  it),  the  air  is  filled  with  dust,  rags,  tin  cans,  empty 
packing-cases,  old  cooking-stoves,  all  manner  of  second-hand 
furniture,  crowbars,  log-chains,  lamp-posts,  and  similar  rubbish. 
Hats !  More  hats  are  lost  during  the  prevalence  of  a  single 
zephyr  than  in  any  city  in  the  Union  on  any  election  held  in  the 
last  twenty  years.  These  hats  all  go  down  the  side  of  the  moun- 
tain and  land  in  a  deep  gulch  known  as  Six-mile  Canon — the 
place  where  the  Johntown  Jasons  found  the  first  tag-locks  of 
the  big  bonanza. 

After  a  very  severe  zephyr,  it  is  said,  drifts  of  hats  fully  fifteen 
feet  in  depth,  are  to  be  seen  in  the  bed  of  the  canon  just  named. 
All  these  hats  are  found  and  appropriated  by  the  Piute 
Indians,  who  always  go  down  to  the  canon  the  next  morning 
after  a  rousing  and  fruitful  gale,  to  gather  in  the  hat  crop.  When 
the  innocent  and  guileless  children  of  the  desert  come  back  to 
town,  they  are  all  loaded  down  to  the  guards  with  hats.  Each 
head  is  decorated  with  at  least  half  a  dozen  hats  of  all  kinds 
and  colors — braves,  squaws,  and  pappooses  are  walking  pyramids 
of  hats. 

There  is  a  tradition  in  Virginia  City,  that  in  the  spring  of 
1863,  a  donkey  was  caught  up  from  the  side  of  Mount  David- 
son— far  up  on  the  northern  side,  near  the  summit  of  the  moun- 
tain— and  carried  eastward  over  the  city,  at  a  height  of  five  or 
six  hundred  feet  above  the  houses,  finally  landing  near  the  Sugar- 
Loaf  Mountain — nearly  five  miles  away.  Those  who  witnessed 
this  remarkable  instance  of  the  force  of  the  zephyr,  say  that  as 


256  WEIRD  SCENES. 


the  poor  beast  was  hurried  away  over  the  town,  his  neck  was 
stretched  out  to  its  greatest  length,  and  he  was  shrieking  in  the 
most  despairing  and  heart-rending  tones  ever  heard  from  any 
living  creature.  The  oldest  inhabitant  sometimes  tries  to  spoil 
this  story  by  saying  that  what  was  seen  was  an  old  gander,  the 
leader  of  a  flock  of  wild  geese,  lost  in  the  storm,  and  baffled  in 
his  attempt  to  make  headway  southward  against  the  hurricane. 
It  may  be  so,  but  most  folks  along  the  Comstock  cling  to  the 
donkey  and  sneer  at  the  gander. 

Although  there  is  hardly  a  green  spot  to  be  seen  in  any  direc- 
tion, yet  there  are,  in  many  places  in  Washoe,  landscapes  that 
will  always  at  once  attract  attention.  From  Virginia  City, 
perched  as  it  is,  high  on  the  side  of  Mount  Davidson,  is  obtained 
a  grand  view  of  a  vast  wilderness  of  hills,  mountains,  and  desert 
plains.  The  eye  sweeps  eastward  over  untold  scores  of  hills 
and  valleys  to  the  tall  peaks  of  the  Humboldt  mountains,  distant 
not  less  than  one  hundred  and  eighty  miles.  Hill  rises  beyond 
hill  far  away  in  all  directions,  each  hill  exhibiting  in  all  its  out- 
lines a  stern  individuality,  and  each  rearing  aloft  a  rock-crowned 
and  treeless  head. 

In  the  interstices  of  these  peaks,  each  of  which  stands  a  dark- 
browed  and  sullen  Ajax,  we  catch  glimpses  of  deserts  that  lie 
white  and  glittering,  long  journeys  away,  yet  we  almost  feel  our 
eyes  scorched  as  we  gaze,  by  their  far-darted  shimmer.  These 
spots  that  so  glitter  and  twinkle,  far  away  through  the  brown  of 
the  hills,  are  great  plains  of  salt  and  alkali — deserts  more  hungry 
and  sterile  than  the  wilds  of  Sahara.  In  the  view  before  us  we 
have  the  "hoar  austerity  of  rugged  desolation,"  yet  there  dwells 
in  it  a  grandeur  that  is  almost  awful,  and  a  something  very 
fascinating. 

Every  artist  who  looks  upon  this  weird  and  unsmiling  land- 
scape feels  his  soul  stirred  with  a  desire  to  paint  it.  No  man 
has  yet  painted  it — no  man  will  ever  paint  it.  There  is  that  in 
it  which  no  cunning  in  colors  can  reach — no  skill  in  drawing 
can  express.  The  only  way  in  which  an  artist  can  approach  the 
subject  is  by  painting  what  he  feels,  not  what  he  sees.  This 
vast  landscape  is  at  all  times  grand  and  worthy  of  study,  but 
when  its  many  moods  are  evoked  by  elemental  disturbances,  it 
becomes  wildly  beautiful. 


LIGHT  AND  SHADE.  257 

Often  in  summer  several  thunder-showers  are  to  be  seen  in 
progress  at  the  same  moment,  far  out  in  the  wide  wilderness, 
each  separated  from  the  other  by  a  broad  belt  of  blue  sky  and 
bright  sunshine.  While  one  dark  storm-cloud  hovers  over  the 
city,  showering  its  moisture  upon  the  thirsty  earth,  another  is 
seen  a  whole  day's  journey  to  the  eastward,  creeping  along  some 
parched  desert,  with  the  rain,  in  slanting  columns,  pouring  upon 
the  white  and  shining  fields  of  alkali,  and  still  others  hang  about 
the  mountain  peaks  in  various  directions,  sending  down  red 
bolts  of  lightning  upon  their  dark  granite  summits.  Away  to 
the  northeast  the  tall,  turreted  peaks  of  Castle  District  rise 
against  an  inky  sky,  each  line  of  their  rugged  spires  distinctly 
traceable,  while  to  the  southeast,  looming  high  above  the  hori- 
zon, are  seen,  through  a  shower,  the  ashen-hued  mountains  of 
Como. 

To  the  right  of  these,  and  miles  on  miles  further  away — far 
south  of  the  Carson  River — stand  many  tall,  purple  peaks,  here 
and  there  one  among  the  highest  tipped  with  sunlight.  East- 
ward, below  the  level  of  the  city  and  almost  in  the  centre  of  the 
picture,  the  Sugar-Loaf  rears  its  rounded  top,  over  which,  and 
far  beyond,  stretched  partly  in  sunlight  and  partly  in  shadow, 
lies  the  valley  of  the  Carson.  A  green  fringe  of  cottonwoods, 
visible  along  all  the  river's  eccentric  meanderings,  is  the  only 
tinge  of  green  in  all  the  broad  land  before  us.  Here  and  there 
are  seen  short  reaches  in  the  river  that  glitter  like  burnished 
silver  in  the  rays  of  the  evening  sun. 

A  long  table-mountain  cuts  short  our  view  of  the  valley  and 
river,  but  over  this  mountain  we  see,  spread  out  like  a  vast 
sheet  of  parchment,  the  Forty-mile  Desert,  over  which  shadows 
of  clouds  move  as  slowly  as  in  early  times  crawled  across  the 
same  sands  the  long  trains  of  weary  pilgrims,  wearing  out  the 
way  to  the  land  of  gold,  over  the  Sierras.  Far  beyond,  where 
the  cloud-shadows  move  in  black  squadrons  across  the  desert 
sands — quite  two  days'  journey  beyond — are  reared  against  the 
eastern  sky  the  Humboldt  mountains,  whose  white  peaks  might 
pass  for  the  tombs  and  cenotaphs  of  the  giants  of  the  olden 
times.  Some  of  these  are  half  hidden  in  patches  of  dark  mist, 
or  veiled  by  slanting  columns  of  rain,  while  others  stand  in  the 
full  glory  of  the  sun.  But  in  this  scene  we  have  a  constant 
15 


258 


THE  GIANTS  OF  THE  SIERRAS. 


change  of  light  and  shade.  Peaks  that  were  a  moment  since 
sooty-black,  suddenly  flash  up  and  become  golden  and  brilliant, 
soon  again  to  resume  their  dusky  robes,  while  neighboring  peaks 
stand  forth  clad  in  the  garments  of  their  departed  glory. 

As  the  sun  sinks  lower,  night  is  seen  to  settle  into  the  deeper 
canons,  and  take  shelter  behind  the  lower  hills,  and  the  shadow 
of  Mount  Davidson  goes  forth  as  a  giant,  and  stretches  darkness 
from  hill-top  to  hill-top  everywhere. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

THE   RED   PROPRIETORS. 

AS  we  have  now  been  a  long  time  among  the  mines,  the 
reader  will  probably  not    object  to  a  little  more  infor- 
mation concerning  the  Indians  of  the  country,  before 
making  another  plunge  into  the  "lower  levels"  of  the  Corn- 
stock  lode. 

The  Piute  Indians  were  formerly  the  owners  of  all  that 
region  in  which  the  Comstock  mines  are  situated ;  also,  of 
nearly  all  of  the  western  part  of  the  State  of  Nevada,  though 
the  Washoe  Indians  held  Carson,  Eagle,  Steamboat,  and 
Washoe  Valley,  the  Truckee  Meadows  and  the  country  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Lake  Tahoe.  The  Shoshones  owned 
what  is  now  Eastern  Nevada,  and  they  still  live  in  that  region.^___j 

The  Piutes  range  nearly  up  to  Oregon,  and  far  soufhT~ 
toward  Arizona.  They  have  always  been  great  travelers,  and 
as  early  as  in  the  days  of  the  *'  Mission  Fathers,"  were  in  the 
habit  of  crossing  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains  and  visiting 
the  Pacific  seaboard  every  summer;  a  journey  still  taken  by 
many  of  them  each  year,  as  not  a  few  Piute  women  are  mar- 
ried to  Spaniards  who  own  large  ranches  in  the  vicinity  of 
Santa  Cruz  and  other  towns  in  the  southern  part  of  California. 

Originally,  it  is  said,  the  Piutes,  the  Utes,  the  Pitt  River  In- 
dians, the  Queen's  River  Indians,  and  some  other  small  bands, 
were  all  Shoshones,  but  the  tribe  multiplied  rapidly,  and  at 
last  was  spread  over  such  a  vast  extent  of  country  that  one 
chief  could  not  govern  all.  They  then  broke  up  into  large 
bands  that  took  the  names  which  now  distinguish  them  as 
tribes. 

259 


260  A  STRANGE  PAIR. 


The  Piutes  belonged  to  the  Ute  band  at  the  time  that  the 
original  Shoshone  tribe  broke  up  through  its  own  weight  and 
unwieldy  size.  They  settled  about  the  lakes — Humboldt,. 
Pyramid,  Carson,  and  Walker — and  were  therefore  called 
Pah-Utes;  that  is,  water  Utes,  "pah"  being  the  word  that  sig- 
nifies water  among  all  the  Indians  of  the  Great  Basin  region, 
Finally,  the  Utes  and  Pah-Utes,  or  "  Piutes  " — as  the  name  is 
now  generally,  though  improperly,  written — became  separate 
tribes. 

The  language  of  all  the  tribes  in  the  Great  Basin  region  and 
far  to  the  northward  still  retains  a  sufficient  number  of  the 
words  of  the  original  Shoshone  tongue  to  enable  members  of 
any  one  of  the  present  tribes  to  make  themselves  understood 
by  their  neighbors.  When  pressed  to  go  far  back  into  the 
dim  and  distant  past,  beyond  the  time  when  they  were  all 
Shoshones,  the  Piutes  have  a  legend  according  to  which  they 
owe  their  origin  to  the  marriage  of  a  white  wolf  and  a 
woman.  The  white  wolf  came  from  the  far  north,  and  the 
woman,  who  was  the  daughter  of  a  great  chief,  came  from  the 
south. 

The  Piutes,  according  to  the  legend,  are  the  descendants  of 
this  strange  pair. 

Away  north,  on  the  summit  of  a  high  bluff  on  Pitt  River,  is 
to  be  seen  a  huge  white  rock  which,  when  viewed  from  cer- 
tain points,  bears  a  striking  resemblance  to  a  wolf  in  a 
recumbent  position.  To  this  day,  many  of  the  Piutes  point 
to  this  rock  and  say  that  it  is  their  great  father — the  father  of 
all  the  Piutes — that  he  never  died,  but  was  changed  into  this 
rock,  in  which  he  still  lives.  I  once  told  this  story  to  an  old 
and  very  intelligent  Piute,  and  asked  him  what  he  thought 
about  it.  He  said :  "  Who  told  you  this  story,  Tom  or 
Natchez  ?  "  referring  to  two  of  the  sons  of  old  Winnemucca, 
the  head  chief. 

"I  have  heard  it  from  Tom,  and  also  from  many  other 
Piutes,"  said  I. 

"  O,"  said  he,  "  it  is  only  a  story  of  times  long  ago.  It  was 
while  we  were  still  Shoshones,  that  this  happened.  You  have 
heard  the  story  the  way  the  old  women  tell  it." 

He  then  proceeded  to  say  that,  a  very  long  time  ago,  there 


THE   WOMAN  WHO  MADE  THE  INDIANS.  263 

was  a  great  war  between  a  tribe  of  Indians  living  in  the  north, 
the  name  of  whose  chief  was  White  Wolf,  and  a  tribe  living 
in  the  south.  For  years  they  fought  every  summer,  and  many 
on  both  sides  were  killed.  Still,  the  old  men  would  stir  up 
the  young  men  to  continue  the  strife.  At  last  both  tribes 
grew  weak  and  weary  of  the  long  war,  and  at  a  big  council  it 
was  arranged  that  the  White  Wolf  should  marry  the  daughter 
of  the  chief  of  the  tribe  against  which  he  had  so  long  drawn 
a  hostile  bow,  and  thus  all  difficulties  were  settled.  The  two 
tribes  settled  down  and  lived  together,  all  as  Shoshones. 

The  old  Indian  then  proceeded  to  give  me  the  true  and 
most  ancient  tradition  that  has  been  handed  down  in  the  tribe, 
in  regard  to  the  origin  of  the  Indians  living  in  the  Great 
Basin.  He  said  that  the  Indians  were  made  by  a  man  and  his 
wife,  who  came  from  he  knew  not  where.  They  made  the 
Indians  of  clay  and  something  else,  taken  out  of  the  water, 
the  English  name  of  which  he  did  not  know.  After  the 
Indian  men  and  women  were  made,  the  man  made  all  kinds 
of  animals ;  as  bears,  deer,  antelopes,  buffaloes,  rabbits,  wolves, 
and  the  like.  The  woman  made  the  birds  and  the  flowers, 
and  all  the  fishes  in  the  rivers,  and  the  grass  and  the  nut-pine 
trees,  and  all  the  bushes  that  bear  berries. 

The  man  taught  the  men  to  make  bows  and  arrows,  spears 
with  which  to  catch  fish,  and  nets  for  use  in  fishing  and 
taking  rabbits.  He  also  taught  them  to  build  and  navigate 
tule  (a  giant  bulrush)  boats,  for  all  the  country  was  then 
covered  with  great  lakes,  and  the  tops  of  the  present  hills  and 
mountains  were  islands.  The  woman  taught  the  Indian  wo- 
men to  make  baskets  and  how  to  prepare  food  and  do  all 
things  proper  to  be  done  by  women. 

After  they  had  done  all  these  things  the  mysterious  pair 
took  their  departure,  going  away  to  the  southward. 

"  Do  you  expect  them  to  return  some  day  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  How  can  I  say  ?"  answered  the  Indian.  "They  came  of 
their  own  accord  at  first." 

"  Do  you  hear  the  old  men  of  the  tribe  speak  of  them  ? " 

«  Often" 

"  Do  they  think  the  man  and  his  wife  will  come  back?" 

"  How  do  they  know  ?     They  only  know  that  they  are  gone." 

"That  is  all  the  old  men  know?" 


264:  THE  INDIANS'  ANCESTRESS. 

"  Well,  they  sometimes  say  they  have  gone  south  to  the  big 
water — maybe  they  live  in  the  big  water.  Who  knows?  " 

When  an  Indian  begins  to  say  "  who  knows,"  he  has  then 
told  you  about  all  he  knows  in  regard  to  the  point  upon 
which  you  are  questioning  him.  All  the  Indian  could  say 
was  that  the  pair  came  and  did  their  work  of  creation,  and 
then  went  away  to  the  southward. 

This  tradition  bears  a  striking  resemblance,  in  many  re- 
spects, to  that  of  the  Peruvians  in  regard  to  the  appearance 
among  them  of  Manco  Capac  and  his  sister  and  wife,  Mama 
Ocllo  Huaco ;  also,  to  the  Mexican  tradition  in  regard  to  the 
Huastecas,  the  strange  family  that  came,  whence,  no  one  knew, 
to  the  mouth  of  the  Panuco  River,  headed  by  Quetzalcoatl, 
priest  and  lawgiver,  and  who  afterwards  disappeared  in  the 
direction  of  Guatemala.  .The  disappearance  of  Quetzalcoatl 
is  strikingly  like  that  of  the  pair  mentioned  in  the  Piute  tra- 
dition. Strange  as  it  may  appear,  a  prehistoric  skull  was 
found  at  the  depth  of  several  hundred  feet  in  the  Comstock 
vein  which,  on  being  sent  to  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  San 
Francisco,  was  found  to  exhibit  peculiarities  to  be  found  only 
in  the  skulls  of  the  ancient  Peruvians,  the  people  to  whom 
appeared  Manco  Capac  and  his  wife. 

What  is  said  in  the  Indian  traditions,  about  nearly  the  whole 
face  of  the  country  having  been  covered  with  water  in  ancient 
times,  is  undoubtedly  true.  In  all  the  valleys  throughout  the 
Great  Basin  are  to  be  seen  traces  of  water,  and  on  the  sides  of 
the  hills  water-marks  have  been  left  that  are  visible  at  the 
distance  of  a  mile,  and  can  be  traced  for  many  miles.  In 
places,  there  are  four  or  five  of  these  water-marks,  showing 
the  gradual  subsidence  of  the  lakes.  For  hundreds  on  hun- 
dreds of  miles,  on  all  sides,  there  was  a  labyrinth  of  lakes. 
The  water-marks  showing  the  former  levels  of  the  lakes  (in 
places  two  or  three  hundred  feet  above  the  present  level  of 
the  valleys)  not  having  yet  disappeared  by  erosion,  the  date 
of  the  subsidence  of  their  waters  cannot  be  many  centuries 
back.  The  Piutes  and  Shoshones  have  lost  nothing  by  the 
coming  among  them  of  the  whites ;  indeed,  they  appear  to  fare 
better  now  than  in  the  days  when  they  were  in  undisturbed 
possession  pf  the  whole  land.  They  pitch  their  camps  in  the 
suburbs  of  the  towns  and  fare  sumptuously  every  day  on  the 


THE  PIUTE  BRA  VE.  265 

broken  victuals  collected  by  the  bushel  at  hotels,  restaurants, 
and  private  houses,  by  the  squaws.  The  men,  unlike  the  men 
of  many  other  tribes,  are  not  above  work.  They  .work  at 
sawing  and  splitting  wood,  at  grading  off  building-lots,  or 
anything  that  they  can  manage— all  they  want  is  to  be  shown 
money. 

It  is  not  unusual  to  see  a  Piute  brave  marching  through  a 
street  in  Virginia  City  with  a  wood-saw  and  buck  under  his 
left  arm,  and  upon  his  right  shoulder  an  ax — the  living  exem- 
plification of  the  dawn  of  civilization  upon  barbarism.  Thus 
far,  however,  he  is  one  of  the  civilized,  and  represents  "labor" 
seeking  "capital,"  but  with  all  the  implements  of  peaceful 
industry  borne  about  him,  his  pride  still  clings  to  the  ancient 
insignia  of  the  "brave"  in  his  tribe.  His  face  is  painted  in 
zigzag  lines  of  black,  white,  and  red;  a  necklace  of  bear's 
claws  rests  on  his  breast,  and  an  eagle  feather  decorates  his 
scalp-lock ;  but  instead  of  bearing  a  bow  and  arrows,  a  toma- 
hawk and  scalping-knife,  he  carries  only  his  saw,  buck,  and 
ax,  and  is  only  on  the  war-path  to  do  battle  with  a  wood-pile; 
therefore  is  either  a  peaceful  warrior  or  a  warlike  wood- 
sawyer,  just  as  you  may  choose  to  consider  him.  He  has,  as 
we  may  say,  beaten  his  sword  into  a  plowshare,  but  has  not 
the  heart  to  throw  away  the  scabbard. 

Old  Winnemucca,  the  head  chief  of  all  the  Piutes,  is  about 
70  years  of  age,  and  has  but  little  to  say  about  the  "affairs  of 
the  nation " ;  indeed,  there  is  little  demand  for  legislation  as 
the  tribe  is  at  present  situated.  Many  years  ago  the  old 
fellow  appears  to  have  turned  over  business  of  almost  every 
kind  to  his  nephew,  young  Winnemucca,  then  war-chief. 
Young  Winnemucca  was  in  command  at  the  time  of  the 
trouble  between  the  Piutes  and  the  whites,  in  the  spring  of 
1860.  Young  Winnemucca  never  gambled,  but  old  Winne- 
mucca was  an  inveterate  gambler — that  is,  among  his  own 
people.  The  Piutes  do  not  gamble  with  white  men.  Old 
Winnemucca  has  been  known  to  lose  all  his  ponies,  all  his 
blankets  and  arms,  and,  in  fact,  everything  he  possessed, 
down  to  a  breech-clout,  at  a  single  sitting.  He  is  a  good- 
natured,  kind-hearted  old  man,  but  not  a  man  remarkable  for 
either  wisdom  or  cunning. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

WINNEMUCCA   AND   HIS   BRAVES. 

AT  the  time  the  war  broke  out  between  the  whites  and  Piutes, 
two  young  Germans  were  engaged  in  prospecting  at  a  point 
in  the  mountains  east  of  the  sink  of  the  Humboldt.  They 
knew  nothing  of  the  trouble  and  started  to  come  into  Chinatown. 

On  reaching  a  station  on  the  Humboldt  River  they  found  the 
buildings  burned,  and  various  articles,  such  as  books  and  cards, 
strewn  about.  The  thought  then  struck  them  that  there  was 
trouble  between  the  Indians  and  whites.  Feeling  that  they 
could  make  no  fight,  and  not  desiring  to  give  the  Indians  an 
opportunity  of  blowing  their  brains  out  with  their  own  weapons, 
the  young  men  threw  their  guns  into  the  river,  and  poured  their 
powder  upon  the  ground  and  set  fire  to  it. 

After  leaving  the  burned  station  they  traveled  on  till  night, 
without  seeing  any  Indians ;  but  after  they  camped,  an  Indian 
who  spoke  very  good  English  came  riding  up  to  the  fire.  He 
told  the  young  fellows  to  pack  their  things  and  come  with  him, 
for  should  they  remain  in  their  present  camp  they  were  sure  to 
be  killed,  as  the  Piutes  were  now  at  war  with  the  whites. 

"Piute  man,"  said  he,  "kill  um  great  many  white  man  at 
Pyramid  Lake,  get  heap  gun,  heap  pony.  S'pose  white  man 
kill  Piute,  Piute  kill  um  white  man !  " 

The  young  men  thought  it  best  to  do  as  requested,  and  catch- 
ing up  their  mustangs,  packed  their  blankets  and  equipments, 
when  they  announced  their  readiness  to  follow  their  red  guide. 
After  an  hour's  travel  they  reached  a  large  encampment,  and 
found  themselves  in  the  midst  of  three  or  four  hundred  warriors. 

Their  guide  conducted  them  to  a  tent  near  the  middle  of  the 
camp,  which  he  informed  them  was  "  Winnemucca's  house." 

266 


WINNElfUCCA— CHIEF  OF  THE  P1UTES. 


AN  INTERVIEW  WITH  THE  CHIEF.  267 

Soon  the  old  chief  made  his  appearance  and  catechised  them 
as  follows  : 

"  Where  are  you  from  ?  " 

"From  beyond  the  Sink  of  the  Humboldt." 

"  What  were  you  doing  there  ?  " 

"Prospecting." 

"  Did  you  see  many  Indians  there  ?  '* 

"A  good  many." 

"  Did  they  beg  of  you  much  ?  " 

"A  great  deal." 

"  Did  you  give  them  anything  ?  " 

"All  we  could  spare." 

"  Did  they  try  to  take  your  grub  ?  " 

"  No." 

"  Did  they  steal  ?  " 

"Yes,  a  little." 

"Bad  Injuns  !  bad  Injuns!  Many  white  men  bad  too;  many 
bad  men — some  white  some  red !  What  have  you  in  your  packs !  " 

"  Blankets  and  grub." 

"  Have  you  sugar  left  ?  " 

"A  little." 

"  Will  you  sell  me  two  pounds  ?  " 

"  Yes ;  certainly — or  give  it  to  you." 

"  No,  no  !     I  must  pay." 

Having  measured  out  the  sugar  in  a  tin  cup — a  cupful  for  a 
pound — Winnemucca,  on  being  told  the  price  was  a  dollar, 
said  it  was  not  enough,  and  handed  them  two  dollars.  He  next 
asked  for  gunpowder.  Being  told  they  had  none,  he  caused 
their  packs  to  be  opened  and  searched.  No  powder  being  found 
the  old  fellow  looked  disappointed. 

When  first  brought  into  camp,  the  young  fellows  were  a  good 
deal  frightened,  but  after  their  interview  with  Winnemucca, 
began  to  feel  quite  easy  in  mind.  Winnemucca  told  them  that 
he  was  only  at  war  with  the  Californians,  and  said  he  had  no 
quarrel  with  white  men  who  came  from  the  East.  The  horses 
of  the  young  men  were  picketed  out  with  those  of  the  Indians, 
and  they  were  shown  where  to  spread  their  blankets.  Although 
surrounded  by  Indians,  they  were  soon  asleep,  being  very  tired. 

Late  in  the  night  one  of  the  men  felt  a  hand  on  his  head,  and 


268  A    WHITE  INDIAN. 


awoke.  He  was  greatly  terrified  at  finding  that  an  old  squaw 
with  a  long  knife  in  her  hand  had  him  by  the  hair,  and  was  about 
to  cut  his  throat.  Before  he  could  make  a  move,  or  utter  a  cry, 
an  Indian  lying  near,  sprang  up,  pushed  the  squaw  away  and 
then  lay  down  at  their  heads. 

"  Hush !  "  said  this  man  as  he  lay  down. 

"  I  shall  speak  to  old  Winnemucca  about  this  in  the  morning," 
whispered  the  man  whose  throat  had  been  in  danger. 

''Do  nothing  of  the  kind,"  said  their  self-appointed  guard,, 
"  that  woman  with  the  knife  was  one  of  the  old  fellow's  wives. 
Say  nothing  about  it." 

"Who  are  you ?     You  speak  now  like  a  white  man." 

"  I  am  not  only  a  white  man,  but  am  also  a  countryman  of 
yours.  I  heard  you  and  your  partner  speaking  together  in 
German  last  night.  Say  nothing,  I  am  an  Indian  now,  and 
have  been  for  years." 

The  young  men  were  not  again  disturbed,  and  in  the  morning 
went  to  Winnemucca  and  signified  their  desire  to  depart.  The 
old  chief  gave  orders  for  their  horses  to  be  brought,  and  then 
told  them  to  be  sure  to  travel  fast,  and  not  to  stop  to  prospect. 

When  they  had  packed  up  and  were  about  ready  to  start, 
Winnemucca  gave  them  a  string  made  of  twisted  sinews  in 
which  were  tied  a  number  of  knots,  telling  them  that  wherever 
they  were  stopped  by  Indians  they  must  show  them  the  string. 
They  were  stopped  two  or  three  times  in  the  course  of  the 
forenoon,  but  the  string  operated  like  magic,  as  the  sight  of  it 
instantly  changed  the  countenances  of  the  Indians  from  the 
scowl  of  an  enemy  to  the  smile  of  a  friend. 

Wherever  they  were  stopped  the  string  was  taken  from  them 
and  one  of  the  knots  untied,  when  it  was  handed  back  to  them. 
The  Indians  would  then  say,  as  they  left  them  :  "  Go  straight  to 
Chinatown — travel  fast !  "  In  one  place,  while  they  were  pass- 
ing through  a  canon,  they  were  fired  on  by  a  small  party  of 
Indians  and  two  or  three  bullets  whistled  past  them.  They 
halted  and  called  out:  "We  are  from  Winnemucca's  camp! 
We  are  friends !  "  Two  or  three  Indians  then  approached,  and 
being  shown  the  pass  they  exchanged  glances,  but  took  the 
string  and  undid  a  knot.  They  then  shook  hands,  saying; 
"  Now  we  all  heap  good  friend."  As  they  were  leaving,  one  of 


CAPTAIN  TRUCKEE.  26$ 

them  faced  about,  and  said  ,  "  Don't  tell  Winnemucca  that  we 
shot  at  you."  In  another  place  they  passed  a  hut  that  stood 
near  the  road,  but  seeing  no  one  there,  except  an  old  woman,  they 
did  not  take  the  trouble  to  show  her  the  pass.  In  half  an  hour 
they  were  overtaken  by  three  Indians  on  horseback,  who  levelled 
guns  at  them  and  told  them  to  stop.  On  showing  their  pass  they 
were  asked  why  they  did  not  show  it  to  the  old  woman ;  how- 
ever, one  of  the  braves  took  out  a  knot,  when  all  three  turned 
about  and  went  off  laughing. 

After  they  had  passed  the  site  of  Williams'  Station,  the  burning 
of  which,  and  the  killing  of  the  men  stopping  there,  brought  on 
all  the  trouble,  they  were  again  stopped  by  an  Indian  who 
undid  their  last  knot  and  then  kept  the  string.  As  the  Indian 
turned  to  ride  away,  he  began  singing  in  a  low  tone  :  "  Was 
ist  des  Deutschen  Vaterland  ?  "  and  the  young  fellows  said: 
"  There  is  our  countryman  again !  "  They  were  about  to  turn 
back  and  call  to.  him,  but  looking  in  the  direction  whence  he 
came  and  in  which  he  was  again  going,  they  saw  the  heads  of 
several  Indians  and  ponies  among  the  willows,  on  the  banks  of 
the  Carson  River,  along  which  they  were  now  traveling. 

Old  Captain  Truckee,  in  whose  honor  the  Truckee  River  was 
named,  was  a  very  intelligent  man,  and  was  always  a  great  friend 
to  the  whites.  He  had  been  a  good  deal  with  Fremont  and 
other  American  explorers,  in  the  capacity  of  guide,  and  well 
understood  and  appreciated  the  superior  conveniences  and 
substantial  comforts  resulting  from  the  industrious  habits  of 
civilized  people.  He  deplored  the  ignorance  and  wilfulness 
of  his  people  in  preferring  to  lead  a  wandering  life — deriving  a 
precarious  subsistance  from  the  proceeds  of  the  chase  and  the 
spontaneous  products  of  the  soil — to  settling  permanently  in 
their  rich  valleys  and  turning  their  attention  to  the  raising  of 
stock  and  the  cultivation  of  the  soil. 

Captain  Truckee  died  in  the  Palmyra  Mountains,  in  1860,  from 
the  bite  of  some  insect— probably  a  tarantula.  Before  his  death 
he  gave  the  most  minute  directions  in  regard  to  his  burial.  He 
had  in  his  possession  a  letter  of  recommendation  from  Col.  John 
C.  Fremont,  speaking  of  him  as  being  a  faithful  and  efficient 
guide  and  a  good  honest  man.  He  also  had  other  documents  of 
a  similar  character  from  other  white  men,  all  of  which  he  desired 


270  JOHN'S  FUNERAL  ORA  TION. 

to  have  placed  in  his  left  hand  when  he  was  carried  to  his  grave. 
He  had  been  much  about  the  Catholic  Missions  in  California,  and 
desired  to  have  a  cross  erected  at  the  head  of  his  grave  with  his 
name  cut  upon  it;  he  also  told  how  deep  the  grave  must  be  dug, 
how  his  head  was  to  be  laid,  and  mentioned  particularly  that 
they  were  to  fold  his  hands  on  his  breast  and  heap  the  earth  in  a 
mound  above  his  last  resting-place. 

As  the  Indians  did  not  know  how  to  do  all  these  things,  they 
asked  some  whites  who  were  prospecting  near  at  hand  to  come 
and  bury  Truckee  as  he  had  desired  to  be  buried.  All  of  his 
instructions  were  carried  out  to  the  last  particular.  The  Indians 
all  loved  the  old  man,  and  there  was  great  weeping  and  wailing  at 
his  funeral,  which  was  taken  charge  of  by  a  white  man  who  had 
long  known  the  old  fellow  and  who  was  called  by  the  Indians 
"  the  white  Winnemucca." 

At  the  grave,  Captain  John,  a  son-in-law  of  Truckee,  pro- 
nounced the  eulogy.  He  spoke  first  in  Piute  and  then  in  English, 
and  said : 

"  A  good  man  is  gone.  The  white  man  knows  he  was  good, 
for  he  guided  him  round  deserts  and  led  him  in  paths  where 
there  was  grass  and  good  water.  His  people  know  he  was 
good,  for  he  loved  them  and  cared  for  them  and  came  home 
to  them  to  die.  All  know  that  Truckee  was  a  good  man — Pmtes 
and  Americans.  He  is  dead ;  the  good  man  is  gone.  All  of 
our  people  cry,  for  they  loved  Truckee. 

I  must  go  to  Walker  River  and  see  the  big  Captain  there 
and  say  to  him,  the  good  man  is  dead.  I  must  go  to  Pyramid 
Lake,  to  Winnemucca,  and  say  to  him,  the  good  man  is  dead. 
Winnemucca  sits  in  the  door  of  his  house  and  says :  l  No  sabe, 
no  sabe  ? '  Winnemucca  himself  is  growing  old.  When  he 
knows  the  good  man  is  dead,  he  and  the  big  Captain  at  Walker 
River  will  have  a  talk  and  will  choose  a  man  to  put  in  his  place ; 
but  not  many  are  fit  to  lead  in  the  path  where  Truckee  walked. 
[Captain  John  was  himself  chosen.]  Truckee  was  much  with 
the  white  men,  he  liked  their  way  and  learned  much  of  them 
that  we  don't  understand.  He  wished  to  be  buried  as  the  white 
men  bury  their  dead,  and  the  white  Winnemucca  a<nd  the  white 
men  his  friends  have  seen  it  done.  I  thank  him  and  I  thank 
them — I  thank  all  for  Truckee  and  Truckee's  people.  Good- 
bye !  I  go  to  Walker  River  to  see  the  big  Captain — "  and  he  at 
once  set  out  on  a  run. 

The  Indians  who  remained  packed  up  their  traps,  and  setting 
fire  to  the  hut  in  which  Truckee  died,  they  all  set  out  along  a 
trail  leading  to  the  northward,  weeping  and  wailing  as  they  went. 


PRINCE  NATCHEZ. 


THE  "PRINCESS"  SARAH.  271 

One  of  old  Winnemucca's  wives  (he  had  three  or  four)  was  a 
daughter  of  Captain  Truckee.  This  wife  was  the  mother  of 
Sarah,  known  in  Nevada  as  the  "  Princess  Sarah."  "She  was 
educated  at  Santa  Cruz,  California,  at  a  Catholic  Mission,  and 
reads  and  writes  very  well,  sometimes  writing  articles  for  publi- 
cation in  the  papers,  concerning  her  people.  She  was  married 
to  a  German  named  Snyder,  and  lived  with  him  a  number  of 
years.  Snyder  died  while  on  his  way  to  Germany,  on  a  visit, 
when  the  "  Princess  Sarah  "  married  Lieutenant  Bartlett,  of  the 
United  States  Army.  She  lived  with  him  but  a  short  time,  when 
she  left  him  and  returned  to  her  people. 

When  in  towns  and  cities  she  dresses  after  the  fashion  of 
American  ladies,*but  when  with  her  people  generally  dons  the 
Piute  dress.  Her  Indian  name  is  Sonometa — even  a  prettier 
name  than  Sarah.  Prince  Natchez,  a  full  brother  of  Sonometa, 
is  heir-apparent  to  the  Winnemucca  throne  and  is  now  looked 
upon  by  all  the  Piutes  as  their  leading  man — the  man  to  stir 
up  the  agent  sent  to  the  tribe  by  the  "Great  Father"  at 
Washington,  and  he  keeps  all  the  money  appropriated  for  the 
use  of  the  Piutes.  "  Natches  "  is  a  name  given  to  the  "  Prince  " 
by  the  whites.  His  folks  simply  called  him  "  Nah-tze,"  the  Piute 
for  boy.  The  Indians  have  now  split  the  difference  and  call 
him"Natchee." 

Old  Winnemucca  wears  in  his  nose  a  stick  some  four  inches  in 
length,  and  when  he  goes  to  the  happy  hunting-ground  Nachez 
will  no  doubt  thrust  into  his  nasal  croppings  this  badge  of 
royalty.  The  name,  "  Winnemucca,"  means  the  charitable  man. 

*  See  page  30. 


CHAPTER   XXXVIII. 

SKETCHES   OF   INDIAN    LIFE. 

SHORTLY  after  the  so-called  Indian  war  I  took  a  pro- 
specting trip  into  the  wilderness  lying  to  the  eastward 
of  the  sinks  or  lakes  of  the  Carson  and  Humboldt  Rivers. 
I  had  with  me  two  white  men,  and  we  roamed  through  the 
Indian  country  for  nearly  a  month.     During  the  greater  part 
of  this  time  we  had  with  us  a  Piute  guide  known  as  Captain 
or  "  Capitan  "  Juan. 

When  Fremont  passed  through  the  country  and  took  Cap- 
tain Trucker  into  his  service  as  a  guide,  Juan  and  nine  other 
adventurous  Piute  youths  accompanied  him.  When  they 
reached  California,  these  young  Piutes  liked  the  country  so 
well,  that  the  majority  of  them  remained  there  several  years. 
Juan  lived  there  ten  years.  He  worked  upon  a  ranche  and 
could  plow  and  plant,  reap  and  thresh  grain  as  well  as  any 
white  man.  Then  he  learned  the  Spanish  language,  which 
he  spoke  quite  as  well  as  the  Mexicans  generally  speak  it. 
He  also  speaks  pretty  fair  English,  but  mixed  in  a  good  deal 
of  Spanish,  when  a  little  excited.  He  proved  a  trusty  and 
excellent  guide,  and  we  retained  him  as  long  as  we  remained 
in  his  country.  Captain  Juan  had  seen  his  ups  and  downs  in 
the  world  as  well  as  the  rest  of  us. 

One  evening  when  we  were  all  seated  about  our  camp-fire, 
after  a  hearty  supper,  being  in  a  talkative  mood,  he  said  :  "  I 
was  pretty  well  off  once,  over  in  California — I  had  fifty  dollars" 
He  named  the  amount  with  an  emphasis  which  showed 
that  he  considered  the  announcement  one  of  considerable 

importance. 

272 


JUAN'S  SPANISH  SPECULATION.  273 

"  Indeed ! — Had  you  so  much  money  ?  "  said  I. 

"  O,  yes ;  I  was  well  off— many  ricos  !  " 

"  And  what  became  of  all  this  wealth  ?  "  % 

"  Me  burst  all  to  smash  !  " 

"Well,  that  was  bad.     In  kind  of  speculation ?" 

"  Me  not  understand  spectoolation.  What  you  call  um 
spectoolation  ? " 

"  Well,  it's  when  you  put  your  money  into  something  that 
you  expect  to  make  plenty  more  money  out  off — like  you 
plant  wheat.  You  plant  your  money  in  some  speculation  to 
get  more  money." 

"  Yes  ;  well,  me  make  one  bad  plant." 

"  One  bad  speculation,  eh  ? " 

"Yes;  muy  malo — one  mucho  bad  spectoolashe.  She  was 
one  Spanish  spectoolashe.  Me  marry  one  Spanish  woman. 
She  purty  soon  got  all  me  money.  She  say,  Juan  you  got-a 
some  money  ? '  Me  say, '  No  ;  no,  got-a  money  ? '  She  say, 
'  Juan,  you  no  ketch-a  money  you  vamose — you  git ! '  Me  no 
like  los  senoritas.  Spanish  spectoolashe  no  good  for  Piute 
man — you  think  ? " 

"  No ;  very  bad  speculation.  But  I  suppose  you  went  to 
work  and  earned  more  money  for  your  Spanish  wife? 

"  No ;  me  stop  work — heap  mad.  Me  no  want  no  more 
money — no  more  senorita.  Too  much  all  time  want  new 
dress.  One  night  me  vamose.  Me  come  over  mountains  to 
my  people,  ketch  me  one  Piute  wife.  'She  no  all  time  want 
money,  money.'" 

"  Then  you  have  a  good  Piute  wife  ?  " 

"O,  yes;  muy  bueno — muy  bonita!  Me  keep-a  her  mucho 
well  dress, — give  her  many  shirt.  She  got  heap-a  shirt.  Not 
many  Piute  woman  get  so  much  shirt !  " 

Why,  John,  you  surprise  me.  How  many  shirts  has  she 
got — twenty?  Juan  looked  astounded  and  abashed  at  this 
extravagant  guessing.  He  scratched  his  head,  looked  at  me, 
then  at  the  fire,  and  seemed  to  have  some  notion  of  not  telling 
me  the  exact  "  quantity  "  of  shirt  in  which1  his  wife  rejoiced. 
At  length  he  slowly  said : 

"  Well,  she  got  two  shirt — two  shirt,  but  all  fix  up  nice — 
plenty  braid,  mucho  ribbon,  O,  very  nice !  Twenty  shirt  no 


274:  THE  DEVIL'S  VISIT  ON  EARTH. 

good.  What  you  talk  ? — me  never  see  one  woman  got  twenty 
shirt/' 

Juan  one  evening  told  me  the  story  of  a  wonderful  cave  in 
a  region  far  to  the  northward,  where  his  tribe  lived  in  the 
days  of  his  fathers — long  and  long  before  they  came  south, 
and  long  before  the  first  white  men  crossed  the  Plains.  This 
cave  was  in  the  side  of  a  great  mountain,  and  when  the  Evil 
One  tried  his  hand  at  creation  and  began  to  make  scorpions, 
tarantulas,  snakes,  horned  toads,  cactus,  deserts  and  pools  of 
alkali  water,  the  Good  Spirit  (Pahah)  caught  him  and  put 
him  into  the  cave,  closing  the  entrance  with  a  great  mountain. 
There,  far  down  in  the  ground,  for  many  hundred  of  winters 
the  Evil  One  used  to  roar  and  bellow.  At  times  the  hills 
trembled  with  terror;  great  rocks  were  shaken  from  their 
beds  on  the  mountains  and  rolled  down  into  the  valleys,  and 
fire  came  up  out  of  the  ground.  Some  of  the  mountains  burst 
open,  and  one — a  great  one — sank  down  out  of  sight  and  left 
in  its  place  a  broad  lake. 

The  hill  rolled  off  the  mouth  of  the  cave  at  this  time 
and  the  devil  came  out  and  flew  away  toward  sunrise.  So 
large  was  he  that,  though  he  flew  more  swiftly  than  a  hawk, 
his  wings  had  not  passed  over  when  three  sleeps  were  done. 
They  shut  out  the  light  of  the  sun.  There  was  no  moon  or 
stars.  The  medicine  men  said  there  would  be  no  more  day 
till  the  Evil  One  was  again  shut  up,  for  he  was  very  mad  and 
had  swallowed  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars.  The  medicine  men, 
however,  held  a  council  and  by  burning  a  great  deal  of 
buffalo  hair  made  such  a  smoke  as  to  make  the  devil  very 
sick,  when  he  vomited  up  the  sun,  moon  and  a  great  many 
stars,  and  it  has  been  light  ever  since ;  but  now  there  are  not 
so  many  stars  as  in  former  times.  Since  the  flight  of  the  Evil 
One  there  has  been  no  more  groaning  in  the  mountains,  and 
the  hills  have  ceased  to  tremble. 

After  the  devil  left  the  cave,  a  great  buffalo  came  and  lived 
in  it.  This  buffalo  was  larger  than  twenty  ponies,  and  had 
horns  growing  out  of  his  nose.  All  the  other  buffalo  went 
into  this  great  cave  every  winter  to  see  their  big  chief  and  did 
not  come  back  till  spring.  At  last  this  big  buffalo  got  to  be 
so  old  and  weak  that  when  he  went  to  get  a  drink  at  the  lake 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  CAVK 


COOKING  THE  SAGE.  277 

where  the  mountains  had  sunk,  he.  stuck  fast  in  the  mud. 
The  Indians  there  found  him,  and  got  all  round  him,  and  for 
three  days  shot  him  full  of  arrows  and  beat  him 'with  great 
stones.  Still  he  was  not  dead.  They  then  built  a  big  fire  on 
his  head,  and  so  killed  him.  Afterwards,  an  old  man  came 
out  of  the  cave.  His  hair  was  as  white  as  snow,  and  reached 
to  his  hips.  The  Indians  called  him  Taweeta.  He  never 
spoke  to  living  man,  for  he  had  seen  the  Great  Spirit  and 
had  spoken  with  him,  and  therefore  dare  not  again  speak 
the  language  of  man. 

Taweeta  was  very  wise ;  he  had  seen  the  place  where  the 
sun  sleeps,  and  had  visited  the  wigwam  where  a  great  black 
man  keeps  the  thunder  in  a  gourd :  he  had  been  allowed  to 
view  the  happy  hunting-grounds,  where  all  who  die  like  men 
are  permitted  to  live  and  hunt  in  peace  forever ;  and  he  knew 
the  place  where  winter  hides  from  summer  and  where  the 
summer  has  its  home. 

The  white  sage  on  which  the  herds  of  Nevada  now  fatten, 
was  in  times  past  much  used  by  the  Piutes  as  an  article  of 
food.  Juan,  in  speaking  of  the  many  advantages  enjoined  by 
the  Indians  since  the  coming  amongst  them  of  the  whites, 
said  that  in  former  times  they  were  often  almost  starved.  He 
said  that  he  could  still  remember  a  time,  when  he  was  a  little 
boy,  when  they  were  obliged  to  live  almost  wholly  on  white 
sage. 

"  How  did  you  cook  it  ?"  I  asked. 

"Well,"  said  Juan,  "the  women  cooked  it.  They  made 
soup  of  it." 

"  How  did  they  make  the  soup  ? " 

"  Well,  they  put  the  sage  into  a  big  basket  and  filled  the 
basket  with  water,  then  put  in  hot  stones  till  it  was  cooked." 

"  Did  they  put  in  nothing  but  sage — no  meat?  " 

"Sometimes — s'pose  you  ketch  um — put  in  some  piece 
rabbit  or  pish  "  (fish). 

"  As  you  had  no  spoons,  how  did  you  eat  the  soup— drink 
it  out  of  the  basket  ?  " 

"  No.    All  got  round  basket  and  dip  up  with  hands." 

"  Was  it  good  ?  " 

"  Yes ;  good  all  same  hay  for  cow,"  said  Juan  making  a 

wry  face. 

16 


278  WHITE  SAGE. 


Juan  then  explained  that  in  former  times  when  there  was  a 
failure  of  the  pine-nut  crDp  and  no  game  could  be  found,  the 
whole  tribe  was  obliged  to  subsist  on  white  sage. 

The  white  sage  differs  from  the  common  sage-brush  of  the 
country,  which  few  animals  can  eat,  owing  to  its  extreme 
bitterness.  It  sends  up  a  great  number  of  white  shoots  which 
become  quite  tender  and  nutritious  after  the  fall  frosts,  when 
cattle  greedily  feed  and  rapidly  fatten  upon  them. 

In  Nevada 'this  white  sage  is  the  principal  food  of  vast 
herds  of  cattle  that  cover  not  alone  a  thousand  but  ten  thou- 
sand hills — the  white  sage  and  the  bunch-grass.  The  bunch- 
grass  is  considered  to  be  as  good  for  horses  as  barley,  as  it 
bears  a  heavy  crop  of  seed.  This  seed  somewhat  resembles 
millet,  and  is  much  used  as  an  article  of  food  by  the  Indians. 
It  is  ground  on  a  flat  stone,  with  the  seeds  of  the  wild  sun- 
flower and  other  oleaginous  seeds,  and  cakes  are  made  of 
the  meal  thus  produced.  I  have  seen  patches  of  bunch-grass 
many  acres  in  extent,  that  had  been  cut,  bound  up  in  sheaves, 
and  set  up  in  shocks,  the  same  as  wheat  in  a  field.  This  work 
is  done  by  the  squaws,  who  also  sometimes  strip  the  heads  of 
the  grass  off  between  two  sticks,  tied  together  in  the  shape  of 
a  pair  of  scissors,  throwing  the  seed  over  their  heads  into  a 
large  basket  carried  on  their  backs. 

In  regions  where  deserts  abound,  on  all  sides  there  are 
always  extensive  flats  on  the  tops  of  the  mountain  ranges 
where  the  bunch-grass  and  other  grasses  flourish. 

In  Nevada,  no  less  than  four  kinds  of  wild-clover  are  found. 
The  seeds  of  one  kind  are  inclosed  in  a  small  octagonal  burr. 
In  the  little  valleys  on  these  mountains,  flax  is  found  growing 
wild.  It  is  precisely  the  same  as  the  cultivated  species,  except 
that  it  is  perennial.  It  is  from  the  fibre  of  this  flax  that  the 
twine  is  made  which  is  used  by  the  Indians  in  making  their 
nets  for  catching  fish,  rabbits,  and  water-fowl.  While  all  is 
green  and  fresh  on  the  summits  of  the  mountains,  in  the  sur- 
rounding deserts  all  is  salt,  alkali,  sterility,  and  desolation. 
In  the 'early  days,  when  thousands  on  thousands  of  persons 
were  annually  crossing  the  Plains  to  California  and  Oregon, 
hundreds  perished  because  they  did  not  understand  the  country 
through  which  they  were  passing.  In  looking  for  water  they 


PIUTE  THEOLOGY.  279 


always  went  to  the  lowest  places  they  could  find,  as  they  were 
in  the  habit  of  doing  at  home  in  the  Eastern  and  Western 
States,  whereas  they  should  have  left  the  desert  valleys  and 
climbed  to  the  tops  of  the  highest  of  the  surrounding  hills. 

On  all  of  the  mountain  ranges  springs  of  excellent  water 
are  found,  and  in  places,  small  brooks ;  but  the  water  sinks  in 
the  beds  of  the  ravines  and  is  lost  long  before  it  reaches  the 
level  of  the  deserts.  The  Indians  always  travel  along  the 
tops  of  the  mountain  ranges  in  summer.  On  their  trails  are 
put  up  signs  that  tell  where  springs  can  be  found.  These  are 
small  monuments  of  rock,  capped  with  a  stone,  the  longest 
part  of  which  points  in  the  direction  of  the  nearest  spring. 

Toward  this  spring  are  turned  the  long  points  of  all  the 
cap-stones  on  the  monuments,  until  it  is  reached.  Passing  by 
the  spring,  the  index-stones  all  point  back  to  it  until  there  is 
a  nearer  spring  ahead,  when  the  pointers  are  all  turned  in 
that  direction. 

On  finding  the  first  monument,  after  striking  the  Indian 
trail,  one  may  thus  know  which  end  of  it  to  take  to  the  nearest 
water.  In  traveling  along  a  dry  canon,  where  all  was  parched 
and  dusty,  I  have  sometimes  seen  upon  one  of  its  steep  banks 
a  monument,  and,  climbing  up  to  it,  have  found  the  index 
pointing  directly  up  the  hill,  where  all  seemed  as  dry  as  in 
the  ravine  below.  But  taking  the  direction  indicated,  it 
would  not  be  long  before  a  bunch  of  willows  would  be  seen, 
and  among  these  a  spring  was  sure  to  be  found.  Not  know- 
ing the  meaning  of  these  little  stone  monuments,  the  early 
prospectors  made  a  business  of  kicking  them  over  wherever 
they  found  them,  and  so  destroyed  what  would  have  been  a 
useful  thing  to  them  had  they  understood  it. 

The  Piutes  believe  in  a  heaven  and  a  hell,  a  good  being  and 
an  evil  being.  God,  or  the  Good  Spirit,  they  call  "  Pah-ah;" 
the  devil  or  the  Evil  One,  they  call  "  Avea-dagii."  Heaven  is 
a  delightful  place  where  there  is  plenty  of  good  water,  and 
abundance  of  game  and  droves  of  stout  squaws,  to  do  all  the 
work— no  rest  for  the  poor  squaws,  even  in  heaven.  Hell  is 
one  vast  burning  desert ;  no  water  there  but  that  which  is  red 
with  alkali,  and  which  burns  like  fire  when  swallowed.  When 
the  bad  Indians  try  to  get  out  of  this,  and  essay  to  climb  the 


280  POCO  TIEMPO— PLENTY  OLD. 

hills  to  the  happy  hunting-grounds  they  are  thrust  with 
brands  of  fire,  and  so  wander  back  across  the  burning  sands 
to  meet  with  the  same  treatment  in  trying  to  escape  on  the 
other  side.  Thus  they  wander  forever ;  always  trying  to 
escape,  and  always  thrust  back  into  the  burning  desert.  They 
have  preachers — Piutes — among  them  who  preach  very  good 
Methodist  doctrine.  They  sometimes  begin  preaching  early 
in  the  evening  and  preach  all  night — telling  the  Indians  that 
if  they  lie,  steal,  and  murder,  they  are  sure  to  bring  up  in  the 
great  desert,  "tooroop,"  when  they  die. 

Among  themselves,  and  at  their  own  games,  the  Piutes  are 
nearly  all  inveterate  gamblers.  Old  and  young,  male  and 
female,  are  always  ready  to  bet  their  last  quarter  at  one  of 
their  games.  Very  few  Piutes  will  touch  whiskey  or  liquor 
of  any  kind.  The  women  are  remarkable  for  their  chastity, 
and  are  in  this  respect  models  not  only  for  the  women  of  all 
surrounding  tribes,  but  for  those  of  all  nations  and  colors. 

Although  the  Piutes  swarm  about  the  towns  no  one  ever 
thinks  of  their  stealing  anything.  On  the  contrary,  the 
Chief  of  Police  of  Virginia  City  knows  a  certain  man  called 
"  Snake  Creek  Sam "  who  often  brings  him  valuable  infor- 
mation in  regard  to  the  movements  of  rogues  who  may  be 
hiding  or  scouting  about  in  the  hills.  Some  of  them  are  a 
little  trickish  when  it  comes  to  a  trade,  but  there  are  white 
men  who  think  it  no  sin  to  get  the  best  of  a  bargain  when 
opportunity  offers. 

A  Piute  on  one  occasion  went  about  among  the  residents  of 
Virginia  City,  selling  suckers  for  trout  to  such  unsophisti- 
cated housewives  as  he  could  find.  One  lady  thought  the 
fish  did  not  look  exactly  right  for  trout,  and  said :  "  What 
makes  their  noses  so  long,  Jim?"  "Him  heap  young,"  said 
the  deceitful  Jeems.  "Poco  tiempo  plenty  old;  no  more  nose 
— mout'  all  same  me/'  and  Jim  opened  his  mouth  from  ear  to 
ear.  Looking  upon  the  open  countenance  of  the  red-man, 
the  lady  believed  him  free  from  guile,  and  purchased  a  dozen 
of  his  long-nosed  trout. 

An  Indian  is  always  ready  to  leave  any  work  he  may  be 
doing  and  run  after  game  if  any  is  seen  to  approach.  One 
day,  at  Washoe  City,  a  few  miles  west  of  Virginia,  some  men 


JIM  AND  HIS  DUCKS.  281 

who  were  stopping  at  the  principal  hotel,  happened  to  be  out 
on  the  veranda,  taking  a  look  at  the  surrounding  country, 
when  they  saw  a  large  flock  of  ducks  settle  down  on  the 
further  side  of  Washoe  Lake.  A  Washoe  Indian,  who  was 
sawing  wood  near  the  hotel,  also  saw  the  ducks,  and  told  the 
men  that  he  would  go  after  them  if  they  would  get  him  a  gun. 
In  the  hotel  they  found  an  old  United  States'  musket.  This 
they  loaded  nearly  to  the  muzzle,  and  giving  it  to  the  Indian, 
started  him  for  the  lake. 

The  men  then  went  into  the  balcony  of  the  hotel,  and,  with 
opera  glasses,  watched  the  progress  of  the  red  Nimrod. 

He,  at  length,  reached  the  spot  where  the  ducks  had  been 
seen  to  settle  down  among  the  tules — a  kind  of  bulrush  from 
ten  to  fifteen  feet  in  height. 

Presently  the  watchers  saw  the  smoke  dart  from  the  end  of 
the  Indian's  gun;  saw  him  fall  backwards  to  the  ground,  then 
a  tremendous  roar  came  across  the  lake — a  sound  as  though 
the  gun  had  burst  into  a  thousand  pieces.  Fearing  that  the 
gun  had  indeed  burst  and  killed  the  poor  devil,  the  wags 
began  to  feel  very  guilty.  They  hastened  from  the  house  and 
hurried  round  the  lake  to  the  rescue.  When  they  had  gone 
about  half  way  round  they  met  their  Indian  coming  toward 
them.  There  was  a  long  gash  across  his  right  cheek-bone,  his 
nose  was  bunged  up,  and  his  face  was  covered  with  blood,  but 
he  was  completely  loaded  down  with  ducks. 

"  Well,  Jim,"  said  the  wags,  who  now  felt  better  satisfied 
with  their  little  joke,  "  how  did  you  make  it  ? " 

"  Yes ; "  said  Jim,  "  one  more  shoot  um — no  more  ducks,  no 
more  Injun ! " 


J 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

CONCERNING    "  LO  "    AND    HIS   FAMILY. 

IT  is  said  to  be  next  to  impossible  to  astonish  an  Indian,  but 
on  one  occasion,  while  residing  in  Virginia  City,  I  astonished, 
frightened,  and  disgusted  a  whole  flock  of  the  unsophisticated 
"children  of  the  desert,"  and  with  a  mere  handful  of  shrimps. 

A  crowd  of  Piutes,  numbering  over  a  dozen,  male  and  female, 
great  and  small,  had  come  to  anchor,  squat  upon  the  ground, 
just  off  the  sidewalk,  in  front  of  a  fruit-stand  (a  favorite  place  of 
resort  with  them),  and  were  in  the  midst  of  what  to  them  was  a 
great  feast.  Upon  an  old  shawl,  spread  in  the  centre  of  their 
circle,  was  a  great  heap  of  half-rotten  apples,  damaged  cherries, 
soured  strawberries,  and  other  offal  from  the  fruit-store  in  front 
of  which  they  were  squatted.  Among  the  male  Indians  was 
Smoke  Creek  Sam,  the  Piute  detective,  who,  with  head  thrown 
back,  was  each  moment  dropping  into  his  mouth  great  wads  of 
strawberries,  squeezed  together,  stems  and  all,  of  the  size  of  an 
ordinary  codfish-ball. 

Some  of  the  little  Indian  boys  and  girls  were  smeared  to  the 
eyes  with  a  leathery  mess,  half  strawberries  and  half  dirt,  which 
they  scooped  up  from  the  common  heap,  and  held  to  their 
mouths  in  both  hands. 

Even  the  most  comely  among  the  squaws  had  a  brown  dab  of 
rotten  apple  on  the  'end  of  her  nose,  which  that  organ  had 
brought  away  as  a  trophy  during  some  one  of  the  frequent 
visits  of  her  industrious  mouth  to  the  deep  interior  of  a  slushy 
pippin. 

One  hideous  old  woman  had  raked  a  quantity  of  decayed 
cherries  into  her  lap,  and  sat  "  and  munched,  and  munched,  and 
munched." 

282 


A  LITTLE   WARRIOR  IN  A  FIX.  283 

Under  the  vigorous  attack  of  so  many  diligent  hands  and 
capacious  and  willing  mouths,  the  mound  of  vegetable  garbage 
was  soon  swept  away. 

As  I  then  lacked  amusement,  I  stepped  to  a  market  next  door, 
and  procured  a  handful  of  shrimps.  With  these  I  approached 
the  now  surfeited  group  of  savages,  and  began  eating,  by  way  of 
experiment  on  their  nerves. 

At  first  they  looked  curiously  on,  and  some  of  the  juveniles 
rose  to  their  feet  to  have  a  better  view  of  the  new  and  horrible- 
looking  esculent.  At  a  respectful  distance  they  stood  and  gazed, 
as  they  saw  me  pull  in  two  and  devour  the  many-legged  little 
monsters,  each  "little  Injun  "  with  lips  curled  up, teeth  set,  and 
nose  wrinkled. 

The  bucks  shrugged  their  shoulders  as  they  saw  each  fresh 
"  bug  "  pulled  out  and  eaten,  and  some  of  the  squaws  drew  down 
the  corners  of  their  mouths  and  spat  upon  the  ground  with 
decided  emphasis. 

The  whole  party,  as  though  fascinated  by  a  sight  so  fearful, 
sat  and  closely  watched  each  shrimp  as  it  was  shucked  out  and 
swallowed,  the  general  disgust  each  moment  increasing. 

Finally,  I  held  out  toward  a  "brave  "  of  some  ten  "snows" 
the  few  crustaceous  specimens  remaining  in  my  hand.  This 
incipient  warrior  was  arrayed  as  to  his  head,  in  some  Comstock 
dandy's  cast-off  "  stovepipe  "  hat,  and  as  to  his  nether  extensions, 
in  a  pair  of  adult  unmentionables  of  bake-oven  capacity  in  the 
rear. 

As  my  hand  approached,  his  moon  eyes  rapidly  grew  moonier, 
and  he  began  craw  fishing,  though  determined,  if  possible,  to 
retreat  in  good  order,  and  with  his  face  to  the  foe. 

At  this  critical  moment  I  pitched  at  the  budding  chieftain 
the  empty  shell  of  a  shrimp  I  had  just  finished.  By  chance  it 
alighted  upon  a  lock  of  hair  hanging  over  his  forehead,  and 
there  remained  for  a  moment,  hanging  by  the  claws,  and  dangling 
before  his  eyes. 

The  boy  gave  a  yelp,  made  one  grab  at  the  ugly  thing,  then 
turned  a  complete  back  somersault  over  the  old  cherry-muncher. 
He  landed  running,  but,  his  "  plug  "  hat  being  down  over  his 
eyes,  he  soon  brought  up  on  all-fours,  with  his  head  between  the 
legs  of  a  passing  Chinese  wood-peddler,  who  was  so  frightened 


284:  ONLY  A   SHRIMP! 


at  the  unexpected  assault  in  the  jear,  that  he,  in  turn,  came  near 
turning  a  somersault  over  the  back  of  the  donkey  he  was  driving. 

The  other  youngsters,  seeing  what  had  happened,  scattered  in 
all  directions  like  a  brood  of  startled  quail,  while  the  squaws — 
lusty  old  gals,  all  of  them ! — hastily  snatched  up  the  pappooses, 
which,  in  their  wicker  cradles,  were  lying  across  their  laps,  or 
standing  against  awning-posts  or  empty  barrels,  and  deftly  sling- 
ing them  upon  their  backs,  drew  the  straps  across  their  foreheads, 
and  started  up  the  street  at  a  rolling  gallop,  the  noise  of  which 
resembled  that  of  the  stampede  of  a  flock  of  fat  wethers  when 
in  full  wool. 

The  old  hag  mentioned  as  the  "  cherry-muncher  " — probably 
fearing  that  a  shrimp  would  be  thrown  into  her  straggling  locks 
— hanging  with  both  hands  to  the  dead  branch  of  a  cedar,  poled 
herself  along  in  the  rear  of  the  stampeders  with  astonishing 
agility. 

At  the  distance  of  thirty  yards  she  halted  to  get  her  wind, 
and  seeing  that  she  was  not  being  pursued,  faced  about.  Still 
grasping  her  rude  staff  in  both  hands,  and  resting  her  wrinkled 
and  venerable  lump  of  nose  on  its  top,  she  stared  back  at  me 
from  under  her  mop  of  grizzled  hair,  like  an  old  witch  frightened 
away  from  some  unholy  feast. 

Some  of  the  bucks  sullenly  marched  away,  casting  backward 
glances  from  malevolent  eyes  which  plainly  showed  their  opinion 
of  practical  jokes,  but  Smoke  Creek  Sam  stood  his  ground.  He, 
too,  had  been  outraged  and  disgusted,  but  as  he  had  not  yet 
found  opportunity  to  beg  a  handful  of  smoking  tobacco,  he  con- 
cealed his  feelings  and  deferred  his  retreat.  Extracting  the  pith 
of  a  particularly  large  and  healthy  shrimp,  I  approached  Sam 
with  it. 

"  You  no  bring  um  here !  "  cried  he,  waving  me  back  with  his 
hand.  "  No  bring  um,  me  say  !  " 

"  Just  try  this  one,  Sam,"  said  I. 

"  No !  "  said  Sam,  decidedly  ;  "  glash-hop,  purty  good ;  klicket, 
me  eat  um ;  scorpium-bug,  heap  no  good.  Scorpium  make  Injun 
man  high  up  sick !  " 

I  now  saw  it  all,  and  was  not  so  much  surprised  at  the  aston- 
ishment and  disgust  shown  by  the  whole  crowd  of  redskins. 
Knowing  nothing  about  shrimps,  all  supposed  that  I  was  eating 


THE  LORD  AND  HIS  LAD  Y.  287 

scorpions,  a  poisonous  reptile  very  abundant  in  Nevada,  and 
very  closely  resembling  the  shrimp.  Seeing  me,  as  they  sup- 
posed, deliberately  devouring  scorpions,  all  thought  that  the  Evil 
One  himself  was  before  them. 

The  Piutes  are  the  early  birds  in  Virginia  City.  Almost  as 
soon  as  it  is  sufficiently  light  for  them  to  see,  the  squaws  are 
dawn  from  their  huts  on  the  slopes  of  the  surrounding  moun- 
tains. The  Piute  squaw  is  the  scavenger  of  the  town.  When 
she  rolls  into  the  place  in  the  morning,  she  comes  with  her 
gunny-sack  over  her  shoulder,  and  into  this  stows  all  that  in  her 
eyes  is  valuable.  She  gathers  up  every  little  wisp  of  hay  that 
falls  in  her  way,  even  to  the  last  straw,  as  she  wants  it  for  the 
half-starved  family  pony,  staked  out  in  the  hills  near  the  camp ; 
looks  into  dry-goods  boxes  in  search  of  straw,  also  for  the  pony ; 
dives  into  barrels  in  front  of  the  markets,  for  half-rotten  fruit, 
wilted  turnips,  carrots,  and  other  vegetables  good  for  the  family, 
and  as  the  markets  open  and  the  business  of  the  day  begins,  she 
manages  to  secure  all  the  heads  and  tails  of  salmon  and  other 
fish  that  are  cut  up.  All  this  time  she  has  one  eye  open  for  fuel 
—the  hills  being  stripped  to  the  last  rotten  stick,  by  the  China- 
men, who  have  even  dug  all  the  tree-stumps  out  by  the  roots. 
Bits  of  boxes,  wooden  hoops,  staves,  all  that  is  wood  she  stuffs 
into  her  sack,  along  with  the  rest  of  her  plunder. 

If  the  sack  is  full  and  a  good  haul  of  wood  falls  in  her  way, 
she  makes  it  up  into  a  bundle  and  places  it  on  her  head,  and 
finally,  loaded  down  like  a  donkey,  the  frugal  housewife  climbs 
the  mountain  to  where  her  hut  is  perched,  when  she  makes  glad 
the  heart  of  her  lord  and  master  and  little  ones,  with  the  good 
things  she  has  brought  home  to  them.  Others  hang  about  the 
kitchens  of  the  town,  and  collect  loads  of  broken  victuals,  as 
there  no  swine  are  kept  by  families,  and  they  have  no  use  for  the 
scraps  that  are  carried  from  the  table. 

The  male  Piute  is  not  always  idle,  but  he  cannot  always  find  a 
job.  The  Chinamen  swarm  the  town  in  search  of  about  the 
only  kinds  of  work  poor  "  Lo  "  is  able  to  do.  But  no  man  with 
a  fat  government  contract  ever  felt  himself  better  fixed,  than 
does  one  of  these  ex-warriors  when  he  has  fairly  settled  down  at 
a  job  of  wood-sawing,  for  which  he  is  to  receive  one  dollar  per 
cord  in  coin,  and  board  while  he  is  doing  the  work.  This  is  just 


288  HOW  THE  LITTLE  ONES  COME. 

the  kind  of  bargain  he  likes  to  make  with  a  newcomer,  or  some 
other  unsophisticated  citizen.  The  kitchen  upon  which  he  has 
thus  established  a  lien  is  never  out  of  his  mind.  He  is  on  hand 
at  dawn  of  day,  and  from  the  mountain  height  on  which  sits  his 
eyrie,  brings  the  appetite  of  a  tiger.  Until  he  has  had  his 
breakfast,  his  face  is  ever  toward  the  dwelling  of  his  employer, 
and  ever  and  anon  he  is  seen  to  pause  with  his  saw  in  the  midst 
of  a  half-finished  stick,  as  he  snuffs  the  odors  wafted  from  the 
kitchen. 

Breakfast  over,  he  begins  watching  and  snuffing  for  his  din- 
ner; dinner  over,  his  mind  dwells  upon  the  coming  supper.  Be- 
tween meals,  he  frequently  becomes  so  exhausted  that  he  cannot 
force  his  saw  through  the  smallest  stick,  unless  braced  up  by  an 
occasional  cup  of  coffee,  slice  of  bread,  and  joint  of  cold  meat. 

When  the  noble  red-man  boards  himself,  however,  he  works 
like  a  steam-engine,  and  loses  not  a  moment  until  the  last  stick 
is  done,  and  he  can  extend  his  palm  for  his  coin. 

We  hear  much  about  the  disappearance  of  the  Indian  before 
the  march  of  civilization,  and  in  some  quarters  predictions  are 
freely  hazarded  that  in  a  short  time  he  will  become  extinct — 
will  pass  away  with  the  dodo.  Whatever  may  be  the  case  with 
other  tribes,  the  Piute  has  no  notion  of  passing  away.  He  is 
among  the  most  prolific  of  autochthones.  To  "  increase  and 
multiply "  appears  to  be  the  first  care  of  the  average  adult 
Piute.  It  looks  somewhat  as  if  he  were  bound  to  occupy  the 
land  in  case  his  productiveness  shall  continue.  The  Piutes  are 
a  remarkably  healthy  people.  They  are  seldom  sick,  and  few 
deaths  occur  among  them.  The  few  who  die  seem  to  die  of  old 
age.  There  appear  to  be  about'one  hundred  births  among  them 
to  one  death.  Hardly  a  squaw  that  is  over  sixteen  and  under 
sixty  years  of  age  can  be  seen,  but  she  has  a  pappoose  slung  on 
her  back,  and  some  of  them  surpass  the  wife  of  the  martyred 
John  Rogers  in  evidences  of  prolificness.  The  women  do  not 
appear  to  be  much  addicted  to  twins,  but  the  little  ones  come 
marching  along  quite  rapidly  in  single  file. 

The  Piutes  are  certainly  multiplying  more  rapidly  than  any 
other  people  in  the  State  of  Nevada.  Even  astonishingly  old 
women  among  them  bear  children. 

"  What  shall  be  done  with  these  people  ?  "  will  one  day  be  a 


THE  EARL  Y  SETTLER. 


question  in  Nevada  that  must  be  answered  in  some  way.  The 
women  are  virtuous,  and  the  men  temperate,  and  so  long  as  they 
thus  remain,  there  seems  to  be  no  likelihood  of  their  dying  off. 

Among  the  Piutes  to  work  is  considered  no  disgrace,  and  the 
biggest  "  brave  '•'  is  not  ashamed  to  be  seen  handling  an  ax  or 
saw  —  no,  nor  to  be  found  carrying  his  child,  a  thing  that  would 
ruin  him  in  almost  any  other  tribe.  Their  greatest  vice  is 
gambling  among  themselves. 

All  is  now  well  with  these  children  of  the  desert,  as  they  are 
not  yet  so  numerous  but  that  the  cast-off  clothing  of  the  whites 
suffices  for  all,  great  and  small,  and  the  cold  victuals  given 
away  in  all  the  towns  is  more  than  enough  to  feed  them  ;  but  a 
time  will  come  when  this  will  not  be  the  case.  Then  some  place 
must  be  found,  and  some  provision  made  for  this  people. 

A  well-known  old  Piute  couple  in  Virginia  City  were  "  Adam  " 
and  "  Eve."  Old  Adam  was  supposed  to  have  been  about  one 
hundred  years  of  age  at  the  time  of  his  death,  and  Eve  also  was- 
very  old. 

At  the  death  of  the  aged  couple  there  was  a  strange  fatality. 
Old  Adam  was  bitten  by  a  ferocious  dog,  and  after  lingering 
some  weeks,  during  which  time  he  was  cared  for  by  the  Sisters 
of  Charity,  he  departed  for  the  happy  hunting-grounds.  A  year 
later  old  Eve  was  attacked  and  terribly  mangled  by  a  savage  dog, 
the  sinews  being  drawn  out  of  one  of  her  ankles  by  the  teeth  of 
the  brute.  She,  too  lingered  some  weeks,  watched  over  and 
cared  for  by  the  Sisters,  when  she  went  to  join  old  Adam  where 
the  grass  is  always  green  and  bright  waters  ever  flow. 

The  old  couple  seem  to  have  embraced  the  Christian  religion 
in  the  early  days,  at  some  one  of  the  Catholic  Missions  in  Cali- 
fornia. Old  Adam  was  very  fond  of  being  in  and  about  the 
Catholic  Church  in  Virginia  City,  and  was  never  happier  than 
when  noticed  by  Father  Manogue,  the  pastor,  with  whom  the 
ancient  red-man  was  fond  of  conversing,  in  his  childish  way,  upon 
religious  subjects.  Whenever  grand-children  and  great-grand 
children  were  born  to  him,  "  Old  Adam  "  never  failed  to  bring 
them  to  Father  Manogue,  in  order  that  they  might  be  duly  bap- 
tized. Thus  is  the  name  of  Patrick  and  Michael  now  heard  in 
the  Piute  tribe. 

About  the  streets  of  Virginia  is  frequently  to  be  seen  stalking 


;290  A  MODEL  PARENT. 


.<*.  thin-visaged,  solemn-looking  squaw  who  attracts  much  atten- 
tion from  her  great  height  and  her  tremendous  strides  in  walking, 
The  gaunt  apparition  in  female  attire  is,  however,  no  squaw,  but 
a  "  buck,"  a  man  of  the  Piute  tribe  condemned  to  wear  the  dress 
of  a  woman  all  the  days  of  his  life,  for  cowardice  exhibited  at  the 
battle  of  Pyramid  lake.  He  is  shunned  by  both  the  men  and 
women  among  his  people,  and  therefore,  like  Baxter's  hog,  goes  in 
a  "  drove  "  by  himself.  The  last  time  I  saw  him  he  had  on  a  new 
calico  dress,  of  the  meal-bag  pattern  in  the  skirt,  and  had  a  new 
gingham  handkerchief  upon  his  head  ;  still  he  was  not  proud. 
Nothing  good,  bad,  or  indifferent  is  said  to  him  by  the  Indians, 
but  the  white  boys  about  town  scoff  at  him  and  his  face  wears  a 
calm,  resigned,  chronic  "  sour." 

Many  of  the  Piutes  are  anxious  to  have  their  children  learn  to 
read  and  write,  and,  in  1875,  three  little  Indians  boys  were  in 
attendance  at  the  public  school  in  Silver  City,  the  principal  of 
the  school  taking  them  in  at  the  solicitation  of  the  father  and  by 
way  of  experiment.  In  a  few  weeks  they  were  able  to  read 
tolerably  well  in  the  first  reader.  They  began  with  the  alphabet 
and  were  very  proud  of  the  progress  they  were  able  to  make. 
Unlike  the  majority  of  white  parents,  the  father  of  the  little  red- 
skins thinks  it  worth  while  to  visit  the  school  occasionally,  to  see 
how  things  are  going.  When  the  stern  old  brave  visits  the 
school  he  marches  into  the  institution  of  learning  with  a  turkey 
feather  in  his  hair,  his  face  painted  in  bright  zigzag  lines  of  black, 
white  and  red,  and  a  long  double-barrelled  shotgun  on  his 
shoulder.  This  has  a  business  look  which  is  doubtless  appreci- 
ated by  the  teacher. 

As  an  object  of  distraction  to  the  school  the  "  lamb  that  little 
Mary  had  "  would  not  amount  to  a  row  of  pins — would  be  a 
mere  digitless  cipher — by  the  side  of  that  Indian  father  in  all  the 
full-blown  pride  of  shotgun,  war-paint,  and  turkey  feathers. 

The  Piutes  have  some  notion  of  picking  up  English  songs  and 
tunes.  I  one  day  saw  a  dusky  maiden  of  perhaps  sixteen  summers 
vocalizing  in  front  of  a  fruit-store,  who  evidently  felt  that  she 
was  a  long  way  in  advance  of  the  majority  of  her  tribe.  The 
song  she  sang  was  :  "  I  feel,  I  feel  like  a  to-morrow  morning 
star,  Soo  Fly !  don't  bodda  my !  Soo  Fly ! "  Her  object 
appeared  to  charm  a  few  wilted  apples  from  the  keeper  of  the 


AN  IMPORTANT  OCCASION.  291 

store,  but  he  being  a  native  of  melodious  Italy  was  not  much 
affected,  and  even  scowled  upon  the  singer,  as  though  he  felt  it 
a  duty  to  discourage  and  nip  in  the  bud  all  talent  manifesting 
itself  in  such  a  quarter. 

At  one  time  a  savior  arose  for  the  Piute  people.  This  was 
Sam  Brown,  the  civilizer,  an  Oregon  Indian  who  had  wandered 
to  Virginia  City  and  who  was  able  to  read  and  write.  Sam 
Brown  was  a  natural  born  philanthrophist — he  cared  not  for 
himself  so  long  as  he  could  amelorate  the  condition  of  the 
aborigine.  He  desired  to  see  the  Indian  tribes  educated  and 
civilized,  and  to  this  work  he  was  devoted,  body  and  soul.  He 
went  forth  among  the  Piutes  residing  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Virginia  and  Gold  Hill,  and  made  known  to  them  his  plans — 
told  them  of  the  school-house  he  would  build  for  the  education, 
of  their  children  and  how  he  should  finally  have  them  all 
residing  in  houses  and  working  at  trades  like  white  men. 

All  the  Indians  were  well  pleased  with  what  Sam  told  them  \. 
they  said  it  was  "  good  talk."  Sam  looked  about  him  for  a  man 
fit  to  be  made  chief  of  all  the  Piutes  living  about  the  two  towns,, 
and  finally  selected  himself  as  being  the  person  most  worthy  ta 
receive  that  high  arid  honorable  position.  Soon  after  that  he 
one  day  marshalled  all  of  his  people  in  procession,  and  with  the 
American  flag  proudly  floating  at  the  head  of  the  motley  throng 
of  men,  women,  and  children,  gaily  marched  them  about  the 
streets  of  Virginia  City.  They  were  the  raggedest  lot  of  recruits 
ever  seen.  To  observe  the  dignified  bearing  of  the  old  warriors 
and  the  grave  expression  of  each  countenance,  was  ludicrous 
beyond  measure.  They  thought  they  were  being  adopted  into 
the  American  nation,  and  therefore  considered  it  a  duty  to- 
conduct  themselves  in  a  grave  and  becoming  manner  on  such  a 
momentous  occasion. 

The  use  of  a  balcony  on  the  principal  street  in  the  city  was 
obtained,  and  from  this,  Sam  Brown  and  several  Piutes,  also  one 
or  two  white  men,  addressed  the  common  herd  below. 

This  completed  the  inauguration  of  Sam  Brown  as  chief,  and 
he  was  now  ready  to  begin  the  work  of  civilizing  his  subjects. 
The  first  thing  in  order  with  Sam  was  the  building  of  a  school- 
house.  He  owned  a  lot  somewhere  in  the  suburbs  of  the  town, 
and  on  this  he  determined  to  rear  a  proper  structure,  Sam  had 


292 


SAM'S  THEFT. 


worked  as  a  carpenter  in  Oregon,  and  felt  equal  to  the  task  of 
building  the  school-house  himself,  if  he  but  had  tools  and  lumber. 
However,  to  the  man  who  is  a  born  reformer  and  philanthro- 
pist, whose  soul  thirsts  continually  to  inprove  and  benefit  his 
species,  no  obstacle  is  so  great  but  that  by  dint  of  untiring 
patience  and  perseverance  it  will  finally  overcome. 

Sam  stole  a  chest  of  carpenters'  tools  and  had  made  consider- 
able progress  in  the  gradual  removal  of  a  lumber-yard,  when 
unsympathetic  eyes  took  cognizance  of  his  philanthropic  labors, 
and,  failing  to  appreciate  the  purity  of  his  motives,  threw  him 
into  a  prison,  the  fate,  alas !  of  many  great  reformers  in  all  ages. 
Samuel  Brown,  the  civilizer,  now  abides  in  the  Nevada  State 
Prison,  where  he  has  time  to  consider  the  vanity  of  all  philan- 
thropic endeavors,  and  to  mourn  the  obtuseness  of  the  average 
human  intellect  in  respect  to  the  motives  that  inspire  the  soul  of 
the  reformer  to  do  noble  deeds  and  undertake  arduous  labors. 

To  this  day  the  proposed  school-house  has  not  been  built  and 
to  this  day  the  Piutes  remain  uncivilized. 


CHAPTER  XL. 

A   VISIT    TO    THE   MINES. 

HAVING  rambled  far  and  wide  among  the  Piute  Indians, 
I  shall  now  ask  the  reader  to  accompany  me  in  a  ramble 
far  below  the  light  of  day,  to  the  underground  regions  of 
the  silver-mines.  During  our  trip  through  the  lower  levels  of  the 
mines  I  shall  endeavor  to  explain  all  that  is  seen. 

As  all  of  the  leading  mines  in  the  Comstock  lode  are  opened 
and  worked  after  the  same  general  plan,  a  description  of  one 
mine  will  suffice  for  all.  In  singling  out  a  mine,  a  description 
of  the  machinery  and  operations  in  which  shall  stand  for  all,  I 
select  the  Consolidated  Virginia  as  that  in  which  is  to  be  found 
all  of  the  latest  and  most  approved  machinery,  and  in  which  all 
operations  are  conducted  in  a  systematic  and  scientific  manner. 
SIt  will  also  be  more  satisfactory  to  the  reader  if  he  knows  that 
what  he  is  reading  applies  to  a  certain  mine  the  name  of  which 
is  known  to  him." 

In  giving  a  description  of  the  various  operations  of  mining, 
and  of  the  machinery  used,  I  shall  find  it  necessary  in  but  two 
or  three  instances  to  go  outside  of  the  Consolidated  Virginia 
mine.  In  these  cases  I  shall  name  the  mine  in  which  is  to  be 
seen  what  I  am  speaking  of. 

The  popular  idea  of  a  silver-mine  among  most  persons  in  the 
Atlantic  States,  appears  to  be  that  a  deep  hole  in  the  form  of  a 
common  well  has  been  sunk  somewhere  on  the  side  of  a  mount- 
ain, from  the  bottom  of  which  is  dug  the  silver  ore.  As  the  ore 
is  dug  up  from  the  bottom  of  the  shaft,  they  suppose  it  to  be 
hoisted  to  the  surface  in  buckets,  by  means  of  an  ordinary  wind- 
lass, or  some  such  rude  contrivance.  What  really  is  seen  at  the 

293 


294:  ABOVE  GROUND. 


main  shaft  or  entrance  to  one  of  the  leading  mines  on  the  Corn- 
stock  lode  is  very  different. 

When  we  approach  the  main  shaft  and  hoisting  works  of  the 
Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  Company  we  find  before  us  a 
main  building  of  great  size,  from  which  extend  several  large 
wings.  One  of  these  wings  is  the  boiler-house,  in  which  are 
several  sets  of  boilers,  and  from  the  roof  arise  a  number  of  tall,, 
black  smoke-stacks. 

Another  wing  is  the  blacksmith  shop,  containing  several 
forges  at  which  are  sharpened  the  picks  and  drills  used,  and 
where  is  done  a  vast  amount  of  work  of  all  kinds  required  in  and 
about  the  mine. 

Then  there  is  the  wing  in  which  is  the  carpenter's  shop,  where 
the  timbers  used  as  supports  in  the  lower  levels  of  the  mine  are 
framed,  and  where  circular  saws,  run  by  steam,  are  used  in 
cutting  and  shaping  the  heavy  square  beams  ;  also,  a  wing  in 
which  is  a  machine-shop  containing  a  steam-engine  which  runs 
planers,  lathes,  and  other  machines  for  working  iron.  The  main 
building  is  handsomely  finished  and  painted  with  fire-proof 
paint,  as  are  all  of  the  wings.  Rows  of  windows  are  seen 'in  the 
several  buildings,  and  from  the  roof  of  the  main  building  and 
some  of  the  wings,  arise  pipes  from  which  white  clouds  of  steam 
are  constantly  puffed. 

In  the  mass  of  buildings  before  us  we  see  nothing  to  cause  us 
to  think  of  a  mine.  What  we  have  before  us  more  nearly  resem- 
bles a  large  iron-foundry  or  big  manufactory  of  some  kind.  As 
we  see  on  the  grounds  surrounding  the  buildings  a  number  of 
immense  piles  of  timber  and  lumber;  in  all,  an  amount  sufficient 
to  stock  at  least  half  a  dozen  ordinary  lumber-yards,  we  should 
be  more  likely  to  guess  -that  we  saw  before  us  a  large  planing- 
mill,  or  door,  sash,  and  blind  manufactory,  than  that  we  were 
approaching  the  main  working  shaft  of  a  great  silver-mine.  Near 
the  main  pile  of  buildings,  are  detached  structures,  which  are 
occupied  as  offices ;  one  being  the  assay  office,  where  the  silver 
bullion  is  melted,  moulded  into  bars,  and  assayed. 

Upon  entering  the  main  building,  we  are  at  once  struck  by 
the  peculiar  style  of  dress  worn  by  the  men  we  see  grouped  or 
moving  about.  They  all  wear  grey  or  blue  woollen  shirts,  caps, 
or  narrow-brimmed  felt  hats,  and  blue  cotton  or  thin  woollen 


GRINDING  AXES. 


SUSPICIO  US  A  TTA  CKS.  297 

overalls.  They  are  all  serious-looking  men,  and  their  faces  all 
seem  bleached  out  to  an  unnatural  and  unhealthy  whiteness. 
The  whole  building  is  floored  as  handsomely  as  though  it  were 
a  church,  and  all  the  floors  are  scrupulously  neat  and  clean. 
All  overhead  being  open  to  the  roof,  forty  feet  above,  and  there 
being  no  partitions  in  the  main  building,  the  interior  presents  a 
most  spacious  appearance. 

Almost  the  first  object  that  attracts  our  attention  upon  entering 
the  place,  is  the  mouth  of  the  main  shaft.  Toward  this  we  are  at 
once  attracted,  for  the  reason  that  we  see  rushing  up  through 
several  square  openings  in  the  floor,  great  volumes  of  steam. 
This  steam  appears  to  be  hissing  hot,  and  rushes  almost  to  the 
roof  of  the  building.  We  are  surprised  to  see  men  coolly  ascend- 
ing and  descending  the  very  heart  of  these  columns  of  steam. 

Looking  for  the  first  time  upon  the  rolling  and  whirling  clouds 
of  vapor  pouring  up  from  the  shaft,  more  than  one  dandy  tourist, 
who  but  a  few  minutes  before  was  very  enthusiastic  in  his  talk 
about  exploring  the  lower  levels,  has  wished  in  his  secret  soul 
that  he  had  never  hinted  that  he  had  the  slightest  desire  to 
descend  into  the  dark  and  dismal  bowels  of  the  earth. 

Many  back  down  squarely.  They  suddenly  remember  that 
they  are  subject  to  vertigo,  are  threatened  with  apoplexy  ;  or —  , 
which  is  a  very  common  disease  at  such  times — palpitation  of 
the  heart.  So  many  persons  visiting  the  mines,  and  seeing  the 
mouth  of  the  shafts  for  the  first  time,  have  made  serious  mention 
of  being  greatly  troubled  with  "palpitation  of  the  heart,"  that 
the  old  miner  standing  near  finds  it  a  difficult  matter  to  keep  a 
sober  countenance  upon  hearing  that  ailment  mentioned.  Noth- 
ing can  induce  some  persons  to  venture  into  the  steaming  shaft 
after  they  have  taken  one  good  look  at  it,  while  proper  explana- 
tions speedily  cure  others  of  their  vertigo,  apoplectic  symptoms, 
palpitation  of  the  heart,  or  whatever  disease  it  may  be  their 
fancy  to  affect. 

When  we  inspect  the  mouth  of  the  shaft  more  closely,  we  find 
before  us  an  opening  in  the  floor  about  five  feet  in  width  and 
twenty  feet4n  length.  This  opening  is  divided  into  four  lesser 
openings  or  "  compartments,"  by  partitions  which  run  from  the 
top  to  the  bottom  of  the  shaft.  Three  of  these  are  called  hoist- 
ing-compartments, as  in  them  the  hoisting-cages  pass  up  and 
17 


HOW  THE  CAGE  IS  WORKED. 


down,  just  us  does  the  elevator  in  a  hotel.  The  fourth  is  known 
as  the  pump-compartment,  as  down  it  passes  the  pump  column, 
an  iron  pipe  from  twelve  to  sixteen  inches  in  diameter,  through 
which  the  water  is  forced  up  from  the  bottom  of  the  mine.  The 
pumping  machinery  is  the  most  pondrous  about  a  mine,  and  the 
largest  engine  in  the  hoisting  works  of  a  mine  is  always  that 
which  drives  the  pump.  The  pumping  apparatus,  balance-bobs, 
tanks  down  the  line  of  the  shaft,  the  course  of  the  water  from  the 
bottom  of  the  mine  to  the  surface,  and  the  working  of  the  several 
parts  from  the  surface  down,  all  are  too  complicated  to  be  ex- 
plained without  the  aid  of  many  drawings. 

The  hoisting-engines,  and  all  the  hoisting  machinery,  are  at 
the  end  of  the  building  opposite  that  occupied  by  the  shaft  and 
fifty  or  sixty  feet  away.  Here  we  find  the  alert  and  keen-eyed 
engineers  constantly  at  their  post  by  their  engines.  Before  them 
is  a  large  dial,  like  the  face  of  a  clock.  On  this  dial  are  figures, 
and  there  is  a  hand  like  that  of  a  clock,  which  moves  slowly 
round  and  tells  the  engineer  exactly  where  his  cage  is  at  all 
times  after  it  has  entered  the  shaft  and  passed  out  of  his  sight. 
By  watching  the  hand  moving  round  the  dial  he  can  see  exactly 
when  his  cage  is  at  the  900,  the  1,000,  1,200,  i,5oo-foot  or  any 
other  station.  Besides  keeping  his  eyes  upon  the  dial,  he  must 
also  keep  his  ears  open  for  the  signals  struck  upon  his  bell. 

The  bell  stands  near  him  and  is  his  only  means  of  communi- 
cation with  those  far  down  in  the  lower  levels  of  the  mine.  A 
man  1,500  feet  below  the  surface  strikes  a  signal  upon  the  bell, 
and  the  engineer  unhesitatingly  obeys  it.  By  means  of  this  bell 
the  engineer  receives  nearly  all  his  orders.  He  is  told  when  to 
start  the  cage  up  and  when  to  stop,  if  he  is  to  stop  short  of  the 
surface ;  is  told  to  hoist  slowly ;  that  there  are  men  on  board ;  and 
a  great  many  other  things  which  he  understands  as  readily  as  the 
telegraph  operator  understands  the  click  of  his  instrument.  Each 
engineer  has  his  bell  and  knows  its  sound  better  than  he  knows 
the  sound  of  his  own  voice. 

The  hoisting-engines  and  the  engineers  who  run  them,  occupy 
a  large  platform  raised  three  or  four  feet  above  tjie  general 
level  of  the  floor,  and  about  this  platform  are  placards  inscribed : 

"  NO  PERSON    IS   ALLOWED  ON  THE    PLATFORM,  OR   TO    SPEAK  TO 
THE  ENGINEERS  WHILE  ON  DUTY." 


REELS  AND  CABLES.  299 

The  lives  of  the  miners  are  in  the  engineer's  hands  every 
minute  of  the  day  and  night.  To  turn  his  head  to  nod  to  an 
acquaintance  might  cost  a  dozen  lives.  The  man  who  is  trusted 
at  one  of  these  engines  is  always  a  man  who  is  thoroughly  known 
and  who  has  a  well-established  reputation  for  sobriety,  "  eternal 
vigilance,"  and  good  qualities  of  all  kinds.  In  short,  he  is  a  man 
that  can  be  trusted  anywhere,  and  to  say  that  Mr.  Jones  is 
engineer  at  this  or  that  mine  is  to  say  that  Jones  is  a  man  much 
above  the  average. 

Over  the  mouth  of  the  shaft  stands  a  frame,  made  of  very  large 
and  strong  timbers,  which  is  called  the  gallows-frame,  probably 
from  the  huge  cross-beam  it  supports.  On  this  cross-beam  are 
fastened  the  great  iron  wheels  or  pulleys  over  which  pass  the 
cables  that  extend  down  into  the  shaft  and  raise  and  lower  the 
cages.  These  cables  are  not,  as  might  be  supposed  from  the 
name,  round  hempen  ropes,  like  the  cables  of  a  vessel.  The 
cables  used  in  hoisting  from  the  shafts  of  mines  are  flat,  like  a 
piece  of  tape,  and  are  braided  of  the  best  quality  of  steel  wire. 
They  are  five  or  six  inches  in  width  and  about  three-quarters  of 
an  inch  in  thickness.  As  they  are  constantly  exposed  to  drip- 
ping water  in  the  lower  part  of  the  shaft,  the  cables  are  all  kept 
covered  with  a  coating  of  tar  to  prevent  their  rusting. 

Near  the  engine  is  what  is  called  the  hoisting-reel,  and  on  this 
the  cable  is  wound  up  or  unwound,  in  raising  or  lowering  the 
cage,  just  as  a  piece  of  tape  would  be  wound  upon  a  spool.  The 
steam-engines  revolve  the  huge  reels,  and  the  cage  is  let  down 
into  the  shaft  or  is  hauled  up  from  its  bottom  just  as  is  required. 

The  cages  work  independently  of  each  other.  One  may  be 
going  down  while  another  is  coming  up,  or  one  may  be  in 
motion  while  the  others  are  standing  still.  When  there  is  no 
living  freight  on  the  cages,  they  are  often  raised  and  lowered  at 
a  frightful  rate  of  speed,  but  with  men  on  board  they  are  moved 
less  rapidly.  . 

Owing  to  the  intense  heat  prevailing  in  many  places  in  the 
lower  levels  of  the  mines,  visitors  must  divest  themselves  of  every 
stitch  of  their  ordinary  attire,  as  the  first  step  toward  their  under- 
ground journey.  This  being  the  case,  a  comfortable  and  commo- 
dious dressing-room  is  fitted  up  in  the  works. 

Hanging  upon  the  walls  of  this  room  will  be   found  a  great 


300  COMICAL  DISGUISES. 

number  of  clean  suits  for  the  accommodation  of  visitors.  A  suit 
for  the  journey  into  the  lower  regions  is  neat  but  not  gaudy.  It 
consists  simply  of  a  pair  of  blue  flannel  pantaloons,  a  grey  or 
blue  woollen  shirt,  a  pair  of  heavy  brogans  for  the  feet,  and  a 
felt  hat,  with  a  narrow  brim,  for  the  head.  In  a  suit  of  this  kind 
even  the  greatest  dignitaries  present  a  very  ordinary  appearance. 
A  minister  of  the  gospel  of  meek  and  lowly  aspect,  when  in  his 
suit  of  black,  becomes  such  a  desperate-looking  villain  on  don- 
ing  blue  woollen  pantaloons  and  shirt,  brogans,  and  felt  hat,  thai 
you  would  not  meet  him  alone  on  a  mountain  trail  for  all  the 
wealth  of  the  big  bonanza  ;  a  pompous  railroad  president  to  whom 
you  would  almost  fear  to  speak  while  in  his  upper-world  attire, 
upon  presenting  himself  before  you  in  lower-level  rig  looks  so 
much  like  a  sneak-thief  that  you  feel  strongly  impelled  to  kick 
him  out  of  the  room. ' 

Fat  men  have  the  advantage  in  dressing  for  a  trip  to  the  lower 
levels,  as  nearly  all  of  the  pantaloons  appear  to  have  been  selec- 
ted for  the  special  accommodation  of  men  of  Falstaffian  propor- 
tions. In  thus  dressing  for  a  trip  into  the  mine  there  is  always  great 
merriment ;  each  man  laughs  at  his  friend,  unconscious  of  the 
ridiculous,  mean,  or  insignificant  figure  he  himself  is  cutting. 

In  the  dressing-room  will  be  found  a  bath-tub,  hot  and  cold 
water  ready  to  hand  by  the  mere  turning  of  the  cocks,  an  abun- 
dance of  clean  towels  and  all  the  convenience  for  taking  a  bath, 
on  coming  up  from  the  sweltering  lower  levels. 


HOISTING  CAGE. 


CHAPTER  XLI. 

DESCENDING    IN    THE   SAFETY-CAGE. 

ALL  being  clad  in  the  uniform  of  the  gnomes  of  the  silver- 
caverns,  we  go  out  to  the  shaft.     A  cage  is  stopped  at 
the  top  of  one  of  the  compartments  of  the  shaft,  and  its 
platform  stands  just  on  a  level  with  the  floor  of  the  building. 
The  cage  is  a  heavy  iron  frame  with  grooves  on  two  sides, 
which  fit  upon  wooden  guides  run  from  the  top  to  the  bottom 
of  the  shaft.     Upon   these  guides   the  cage   runs   smoothly 
through  the  whole  course  up  and  down  the  shaft,  much  the 
same  as  an  elevator  in  a  large  hotel  is  seen  to  work. 

The  cage  may  have  but  a  single  floor  or  platform,  or  it  may 
have  two  or  three,  upon  each  of  which  may  be  hoisted  a  car 
loaded  with  ore,  or  on  which  men  may  be  raised  or  lowered. 
Those  with  two  platforms  are  called  "double-deckers,"  and 
those  with  three  platforms  are  called  "  three-deckers." 

One  of  the  foremen  of  the  mine,  the  superintendent,  or 
whoever  is  to  be  our  conductor,  groups  us  upon  the  cage, 
showing  us  where  we  may  safely  grasp  its  iron  frame  for 
support,  and  finally  all  are  in  position. 

The  engineer  is  standing  with  one  hand  on  the  lever  of  his 
engine,  watching  our  proceedings.  Our  conductor  turns 
toward  him  with  a  wave  of  the  hand.  Instantly  we  feel  our- 
selves dropping  into  the  depth  and  darkness  of  the  shaft. 

Our  first  thought  is,  that  between  us  and  the  bottom  of  the 
shaft — 1500  feet  below — we  have  nothing  but  the  frail  platform 
of  the  cage,  and,  instinctively,  we  tighten  our  grip  upon  the 
iron  bars  of  the  cage,  determined  that,  should  the  bottom 
drop  out,  we  will  be  found  hanging  to  the  upper  works  of 
our  strange  vehicle. 

301 


302  D  0  WN  WA  RD  ! 


At  the  first  plunge  all  is  dark,  but  suspended  from  the 
cross-bar  of  the  cage,  or  in  the  hands  of  our  conductor,  we 
have  a  lantern  or  two,  and  by  the  light  afforded  by  these,  we 
soon  begin  to  distinguish  the  sides  of  the  shaft.  Our  view  is 
very  unsatisfactory,  however,  as  all  the  timbers  on  the  sides 
of  the  compartment  appear  to  be  darting  swiftly  upward 
toward  the  top  of  the  shaft;  just  as  trees,  fences,  and  telegraph 
poles  seem  to  be  running  backwards  when  we  are  flying 
through  the  country  on  a  lightning-express  train. 

Our  speed  is  probably  not  half  that  at  which  the  cage  is 
lowered  when  its  only  load  is  an  empty  ore-car,  a  few  beams 
of  timber,  or  some  such  freight;  but  we  are  not  anxious  to  go 
any  faster.  In  the  early  daySj  on  receiving  a  wink  from  a 
foreman,  an  engineer  would  drop  men  down  a  shaft  at  such  a 
rate  of  speed  that  their  breath  was  almost  taken  away,  but  at 
present,  no  superintendent  on  the  Comstock  allows  any  such 
dangerous  fooling. 

As  soon  as  we  have  descended  a  few  feet  into  the  shaft,  we 
see  nothing  of  the  steam,  which,  rushing  out  at  its  top,  had 
presented  so  formidable  an  appearance  above.  It  really 
amounts  to  nothing.  It  is  merely  the  moist,  warm  breath  of 
the  mine  coming  in  contact  with  the  cold  air  at  the  surface. 
It  is  the  same  as  the  steam  rising  from  a  spring  in  winter,  or 
as' one's  breath  blown  into  the  air  on  a  frosty  morning.  This 
steam  is  seen  at  the  mouth  of  the  Consolidated  Virginia  shaft 
because  it  is  what  is  called  an  "  upcast,"  that  is,  the  draft  in  it 
is  upward.  At  the  Ophir  shaft  no  steam  is  seen,  as  it  is  a 
"downcast,"  the  surface  air  is  drawn  or  sucked  in  at  its 
mouth.  The  air  that  enters  the  mouth  of  the  Ophir  shaft 
comes  out  at  the  mouth  of  the  Consolidated  Virginia  shaft. 

As  we  dart  along  down  the  shaft,  we  soon  begin  to  pass  the 
stations  of  the  first  or  upper  levels.  Our  speed  is  such  that 
we  see  but  little.  We  get  a  glimpse  of  what  appears  to  be  a 
room  of  considerable  size,  see  a  few  men  standing  about  with 
candles  or  lanterns  in  their  hands,  hear  voices,  and  probably 
the  clank  of  machinery.  An  instant  after,  all  is  again  smooth 
sailing,  and  we  see  only  the  upward-fleeing  sides  of  the  shaft. 
Then  there  is  another  flash  of  many  lights,  a  glimpse  of  half- 
naked  men,  a  murmur  of  voices,  and  a  clash  of  machinery, 


UNPLEA  SANT  POSSIBILITIES.  3Q3 

and  we  have  passed  another  station.  It  is  much  like  running 
past  a  railroad  station  in  the  night. 

Sometimes  our  conductor  is  hailed  by  some  one  at  a  station 
as  we  dart  past.  We  hear  the  voice,  but  distinguish  no  words. 
The  conductor,  however,  has  understood,  and  makes  answer. 
As  he  replies,  we  drop  away  from  the  sound  of  his  voice  at 
such  a  rapid  rate  that  his  words  are  drawn  out  into  sounds 
which  we  can  hardly  understand,  though  we  are  standing  by 
his  side.  The  answer,  which  is  left  scattered  along  up  the 
shaft,  is  finally  gathered  in  at  the  station  for  which  it  was 
intended,  and  is  there  put  together  and  understood. 

When  we  have  descended  to  such  a  depth  that  from  one 
thousand  to  twelve  hundred  feet  of  cable  have  been  paid  out 
from  the  reel  above,  we  begin  to  experience  quite  a  novel 
sensation.  This  is  the  "  spring"  of  the  cable. 

Most  persons  have  observed  the  very  active  bobbing  motion 
of  a  toy  ball  suspended  from  an  india-rubber  string.  The 
motion  of  our  cage,  hanging  at  the  end  of  the  cable,  is  much 
the  same.  The  less  one  has  of  this  peculiar  motion  the  more 
he  enjoys  it.  When  this  motion  sets  in,  we  at  once  begin  to 
speculate  in  regard  to  the  probable  amount  of"  stretch"  to  be 
found  in  a  first-class  steel-wire  cable — how  far  it  may  stretch 
before  reaching  the  breaking  point.  It  may  be  no  more  than 
500  feet  to  the  bottom  of  the  shaft,  but  we  feel  that  we  do  not 
care  to  risk  falling  even  that  short  distance. 

However,  should  the  cable  really  break,  there  would  be  no 
danger,  we  should  not  fall.  Attached  to  the  upper  part  of  the 
cage  is  a  safety-apparatus  designed  expressly  to  prevent  acci- 
dents of  this  nature.  At  the  instant  that  the  cable  parted 
there  would  be  released  powerful  springs  which  would  throw 
out  on  each  side  of  the  shaft  an  eccentric,  toothed  wheel. 
These  wheels,  biting  into  the  guides  on  each  side,  would 
instantly  stop  and  hold  the  cage,  block  it  fast  in  the  shaft,  as 
the  wheels  are  of  such  a  shape  that  the  greater  the  weight  and 
downward  pressure  upon  the  cage,  the  tighter  they  hold.  In 
case  of  the  cable  breaking,  we  should  not  fall  an  inch,  per- 
haps not  half  an  inch — thanks  to  that  life-saving  invention, 
the  safety-cage! 

When  the  safety- cage  was  first  introduced  on  the  Comstock, 


304  SAFETY! 


I  had  the  pleasure  of  assisting  in  making  a  test  of  the  efficacy 
of  the  safety-apparatus  at  the  Savage  mine.  We  attached  the 
cage  to  the  iron  cable  by  means  of  a  large  hempen  rope. 

This  done,  the  superintendent  and  a  gentleman  present,  who 
was  in  search  of  excitement,  got  upon  the  cage,  and  we  low- 
ered them  into  the  mouth  of  the  shaft,  which  was  1,000  feet  in 
depth.  We  at  the  surface,  who  were  conducting  the  experi- 
ment, then  asked  the  superintendent  and  his  companion  if 
they  were  ready  to  be  '•  launched  into  eternity,"  and  receiving 
an  affirmative  reply,  a  brawny-armed  miner,  standing  ready 
with  a  big  broad-ax,  severed  the  rope  at  a  single  blow.  The 
cage  dropped  less  than  an  inch,  we  above  were  all  glad  the 
experiment  was  over. 

Had  the  safety  apparatus  failed  to  work,  we  at  the  surface 
would  doubtless  have  all  been  summoned  as  witnesses  when 
the  coroner  held  his  inquest. 

In  case  of  a  train  of  railroad  cars  getting  off  the  track,  we 
never  know  where  we  shall  bring  up;  we  may  go  over  an 
embankment  or  may  be  dragged  against  a  point  of  rocks,  but 
when  a  cable  breaks  while  we  are  descending  a  shaft,  we  stop 
exactly  where  we  happen  to  be  when  the  accident  occurs. 
Thus,  as  the  sailor  in  a  storm  at  sea  pities  the  poor  wretches 
who  are  on  shore,  so  may  the  miner  pity  those  persons  above 
ground  who  travel  on  railroads. 

In  former  times,  however,  previous  to  the  introduction  of 
the  safety-cage  in  the  Comstock  mines,  the  breaking  of  a  cable 
was  an  accident  more  dreaded  and  more  dreadful  than  almost 
any  other.  There  was  no  dodging  when  a  cable  parted.  All 
who  were  on  the  cage  must  go  to  the  bottom  of  the  shaft. 
There  the  cage  would  be  torn  to  pieces  and  driven  through 
platforms  of  plank  three  or  four  inches  in  thickness  into  the 
"sump"  or  well  of  the  shaft,  where  all  who  were  not  killed 
outright,  were  drowned. 

Whether  half  a  dozen  men  or  a  dozen  were  on  the  cage,  it 
nearly  always  happened  that  all  were  killed.  If  any  did  in 
any  instance  escape,  it  was  in  such  a  horribly  mangled  con- 
dition that  they  were  maimed  for  life.  No  wonder,  then,  that 
the  miner  every  day  of  his  life,  and  as  often  as  he  goes  up 
and  down  the  great  shafts,  blesses  in  his  heart  the  inventor  of 
the  safety-cage ! 


HOISTING  CAGES  AND  CARS  IN  SILVER  MINES. 


THE  PRICE  OF  STOCK.  307 

We  have  been  a  long  time  in  the  shaft,  though  it  takes  but 
a  very  short  time  to  make  the  actual  descent.  There  is  an 
occasional  flash  of  lights,  hum  of  voices*  and  clash  of  machi- 
nery, as  described  above,  when  the  motion  of  the  cage  begins 
to  "  slow  down,  "  and  a  moment  after  this  is  noticed  it  stops 
exactly  on  a  level  with  the  floor  of  the  station,  1,500  feet 
below  the  surface  of  the  earth.  We  can  hardly  realize  that 
we  are  standing  at  such  a  great  depth  below  the  upper  world 
and  the  light  of  day. 

Before  us  is  what  is  called  the  "  Station." 

A  'station  '  is  the  place  of  landing  at  each  level  of  the  mine 
(the  levels  are  generally  about  100  feet  apart),  and  it  is  at  the 
station  that  the  cage  stops  to  take  on  or  let  off  passengers,  to 
take  on  cars  loaded  with  ore  that  are  going  up,  or  to  put  off 
empty  cars  that  are  going  down.  The  station  is  generally  a 
large  and  roomy  apartment,  the  walls  of  which  are  ceiled 
with  rough  boards,  and  the  roof  of  which  shows  heavy  sup- 
porting beams. 

It  looks  not  unlike  the  interior  of  some  of  the  large,  rude 
wayside-inns  seen  in  places  in  California  on  mountain  roads. 
Hats,  coats,  shirts,  and  many  similar  articles  are  seen  hanging 
upon  nails  driven  into  the  walls,  and  two  or  three  large  coal- 
oil  lamps  fixed  in  brackets,  render  the  place  light  and  cheerful. 

Upon  the  floor  of  the  station  (it  has  a  floor  as  good  as  would 
be  seen  in  most  houses),  ranged  along  the  walls  are  seen  boxes 
of  candles,  coils  of  fuse,  and  many  other  mining  stores.  There 
is  also  a  large  cask  containing  ice-water,  with  a  tin  dipper 
hanging  on  a  nail  near  at  hand.  The  station  is  a  sort  of 
lounging  place,  where  the  men  who  happen  to  have  nothing 
to  do  for  a  few  minutes  stop  to  hear  the  news  from  the  sur- 
face. Here  there  is  more  chat  and  sociability  than  in  any 
other  part  of  the  mine.  The  reports  of  the  sales  of  stocks  in 
the  San  Francisco  Stock  Board  are  brought  to  the  office  of 
the  mine  as  soon  as  they  are  telegraphed  to  the  city,  and  about 
the  time  the  reports  arrive,  you  will  hear  the  men  at  the 
station  anxiously  inquiring  the  price  of  stocks  of  the  first  man 
who  comes  down  from  the  surface.  The  man  thus  questioned 
seems  well  prepared  to  answer,  and  gives  the  prices  for  the 
day,  of  a  dozen  or  more  of  the  leading  stocks. 


308  VASQUEZ  AND  HIS  FRIENDS. 

His  report  doubtless  quickly  passes  through  the  mine,  and 
soon  five  or  six  hundred  men  away  down  in  the  silver  caverns, 
from  1,500  to  2,000  feet  beneath  the  surface,  know  as  much 
about  the  price  of  stocks  for  the  day  as  do  those  persons  who 
are  walking  the  streets  of  the  town.  Other  items  of  news 
circulate  in  the  same  way;  but  stocks  they  are  always  inter- 
ested in.  Almost  every  miner  owns  shares  in  some  mine. 
There  are  not  a  few  men  working  in  mines  along  the  Corn- 
stock  who  are  worth  from  $40,000  to  $50,000,  and  some  who 
are  probably  worth  still  larger  sums.  While  at  work  they 
are  earning  $4  per  day  regularly,  and  can  "  speculate  "  just  as 
well  as  if  they  were  constantly  on  the  streets  watching  the 
stock  reports. 

In  some  of  the  stations  are  to  be  seen  things  that  one  would 
not  expect  to  find  hundreds  of  feet  below  the  surface.  In  the 
Crown  Point  mine,  for  instance,  the  visitor  finds  on  one  of  the 
walls  of  the  station  at  the  i,ioo-foot  level,  a  handsome  little 
cabinet  of  ores,  minerals,  coins,  and  curiosities  of  all  kinds — 
all  neatly  displayedtin  a  suitable  case  which  is  provided  with 
glazed  doors.  On  the  walls  is  also  to  be  seen  a  considerable 
collection  of  photographs  of  actors,  actresses,  singers,  and 
other  celebrities.  There  is  one  group  that  is  labelled  "  Vas- 
quez  and  His  Friends."  The  "friends"  grouped  about  the 
notorious  bandit  are  photographs  of  leading  citizens  of  the 
town  of  Gold  Hill,  a  church  deacon  among  the  number. 

We  have  all  heard  about  things  being  played  "  low  down," 
but  it  would  seem  that  this  joker,  at  the  depth  of  1,100  feet, 
has  it  down  about  as  low  as  any  man  on  the  continent.  The 
cabinet,  and  the  gallery  of  celebrities  are  the  property,  the 
care,  and  the  pride  of  the  station-tender  of  the  level  named.. 

A  car-track — a  railroad  track  in  miniature — is  laid  through 
the  floor  in  the  centre  of  the  station,  which  track  runs  out  to 
the  main  north  and  south  drift  of  the  mine  (it  must  be  borne 
in  mind  that  the  general  course  of  the  Comstock  lode  is  north 
and  south),  and  through  the  main  drift  connects — by  means 
of  turn-tables — with  a  great  number  of  cross-cuts  and  other 
drifts. 

As  we  stand  in  the  station,  cars  loaded  with  ore  are  regu- 
larly arriving  from  the  several  "  stopes  "  of  the  level.  These 


THE  "  CARMAN." 


are  run  upon  the  cage,  the  signal  to  hoist  is  given  to  the 
engineer  above,  and  an  instant  after,  the  cage  and  car,  with 
its  load  of  ore,  dart  swiftly  up  the  shaft.  ^Perhaps  at  the  same 
instant  a  cage  comes  down  the  adjoining  compartment,  bring- 
ing with  it  an  empty  ore-car.  This  is  at  once  grasped  by  a 
man  in  waiting,  known  in  the  mine  as  a  "  carman,"  and  is 
trundled  away  to  some  distant  part  of  the  mine,  to  be  again 
loaded  with  ore  and  again  whisked  up  to  the  surface  on  the 
cage. 

As  there  are  three  hoisting  compartments,  the  arrivals  and 
departures  are  quite  frequent,  and  the  station  is  really  quite  a 
business  place. 


CHAPTER  XLII. 

BELOW    THE    SURFACE, 

IN  order  that  the  reader  may  get  a  proper  idea  of  the  under- 
ground works  of  a  mine,  I  shall  now  give  a  detailed  descrip- 
tion of  all  that  is  worthy  of  special  mention.  Drifts  are 
openings  or  galleries  from  four  to  six  feet  in  width,  and  from 
six  to  eight  feet  in  height,  opened  along  the  course  of  the 
vein.  They  are  generally  run  along  one  of  the  walls  of  the 
vein,  in  the  "country  rock,"  (rock  outside  of  the  vein)  as  that  con- 
tains no  lime,  and  therefore  stands  best,  and  does  not  swell  and 
crush  the  timbers.  In  some  drifts  the  rock  stands  without  being 
timbered.  The  main  north  and  south  drift,  generally  the  first 
reached  after  leaving  a  station  in  a  mine,  is  the  highway  of  the 
level  in  which  it  is  opened.  It  has  a  car-track  running  through 
its  whole  length,  and,  in  some  cases,  as  in  the  main  drift  on  the 
i5oo-foot  level  of  the  consolidated  Virginia  and  California  mines, 
contains  a  double  car-track. 

The  cross-cuts  are  the  same  kind  of  openings  as  the  drifts, 
but  they  are  smaller  and  run  across  the  course  of  the  vein — run 
east  and  west.  They  start  from  the  main  drift,  and  are  pushed 
out  into  the  vein  and  ore-body,  if  ore-body  there  be.  Pushed 
out  in  this  way  from  the  main  drift  at  intervals  of  about  100  feet, 
they  cut  through  and  "  prospect  "  the  vein.  The  progress  of  the 
cross-cuts  on  a  new  level  in  a  leading  mine  on  the  Comstock  is 
always  watched  with  great  interest  by  all  the  "  mining  experts," 
"  stock  sharps,"  and  mining  men  generally. 

Car-tracks  are  laid  in  all  of  the  cross-cuts,  and  connect  with 
the  track  of  the  main  drift  by  means  of  turn-tables.  The  cross- 
cuts are  pushed  through  the  vein  to  its  opposite  wall,  in  order 

310 


TUMBLING  DOWN  A  CHUTE. 


that  the  whole  of  the  ground  may  be  thoroughly  explored  and 
its  boundaries  defined.  In  order  to  secure  a  free  circulation  of 
air  on  the  level,  they  are  frequently  connected  at  various  points 
by  cross-drifts. 

Winzes  are  small  shafts  sunk  from  one  level  to  another  in  the 
mine.  They  are  sunk  in  any  place  where  they  may  happen  to 
be  required.  Some  are  sunk  vertically,  but  many  follow  the 
foot-wall  of  the  vein,  and  thus  go  down  at  an  angle  of  from 
thirty-five  to  forty-five  degrees.  All  are  of  great  use  for  the 
purpose  of  ventilation,  and  those  that  are  sunk  at  an  angle  are 
very  frequently  properly  planked  up,  and  used  as  chutes  through 
which  to  send  ore  or  timbers  to  a  lower  level.  In  all  mines  will 
be  found  a  great  number  of  these  chutes.  Sometimes  the  men 
fall  into  them.  When  this  happens  they  are  always  to  be  found 
at  the  bottom,  on  the  level  below,  immediately  after.  Generally, 
men  are  not  very  badly  hurt  by  sliding  through  an  ordinary 
chute,  yet  not  a  few  have  been  killed  by  such  a  fall,  and  many 
have  had  bones  broken. 

In  going  down  a  chute  much  depends  upon  the  angle  of  the 
opening — the  steeper,  the  more  danger  there  is  in  making  the 
trip. .  On  the  surface  of  the  earth  all  the  vertical  winzes 
would  be  called  shafts,  and  what  are  called  drifts  and  cross-cuts 
below  would  be  called  tunnels,  were  they  where  their  mouths 
came  out  on  the  surface.  An  "  upraise  "  is  where  the  miners 
begin  on  a  lower  level  and  dig  upward  toward  a  higher.  While 
it  is  going  up,  it  is  an  upraise,  but  when  it  is  connected  with  the 
level  above  it  is  a  winze.  Should  it  never  reach  the  level  for 
which  it  was  started  it  remains  an  upraise  for  all  time. 

Winzes  are  very  often  thus  made — one  set  of  miners  being 
engaged  below  at  digging  up,  while  above  another  set  are  digging 
down.  The  progress  made  by  the  men  below  is  always  much 
more  rapid  than  that  of  the  men  above,  as  every  ounce  of  dirt 
loosened  at  once  falls  down  out  of  the  way. 

When  the  ore-body  has  been  properly  opened,  explored,  and 
ventilated  by  means  of  drifts,  cross-cuts,  and  winzes,  the  work 
of  extraction  is  commenced. 

The  first  opening  is  made  on  the  "  track-floor  "  of  the  level—-* 
the  floor  on  which  are  run  the  drifts  and  cross-cuts  wherein  are 
laid  the  car-tracks— and  in  the  bottom  of  this  opening  or  cham- 


312  TIMBERING  A  MINE. 

ber  are  put  down  the  sills  for  the  first  "  square-set  "  of  timbers. 

The  timbers  used  as  supports  in  a  mine  are  from  twelve  to 
fourteen  inches  square.  The  posts  are  six  feet,  and  the  caps  five 
feet,  in  length.  The  upper  ends  of  the  posts  are  framed  in  such 
a  manner  that  the  ends  of  four  caps  may  rest  upon  each,  and 
leave  a  mortise  in  the  centre,  in  which  to  insert  the  tenon  of  the 
post  of  the  next  "  set  " ;  on  the  top  of  this  is  a  place  for  another 
post,  and  so  the  work  of  building  up  sets  goes  on  to  any  height 
that  may  be  required. 

As  the  ore  is  extracted  at  the  sides  of  the  first  set,  the  same 
squares  of  timbers  are  built  up  in  those  places,  and  there  is 
formed  a  sort  of  pyramid  of  cribs,  rising  constantly  as  the  work 
of  extracting  the  ore  proceeds.  The  top  sets  of  this  pyramid 
are  secured  closely  against  the  ore,  by  means  of  large  wooden 
wedges,  and  the  side  sets  are  also  wedged  up  against  the  ore  in 
the  same  way,  as  they  are  carried  up.  In  this  way  the  mass  of 
ore  overhead  is  supported  at  all  points  by  the  cribs  of  timbers, 
except  here  and  there  where  chambers  are  being  excavated  in 
the  ore-body  for  new  sets. 

Thus  are  squares  of  timbers  constantly  added,  and  the  pyra- 
mid carried  up  till  the  ore  has  been  worked  out  to  the  level 
above.  If  the  level  above  has  been  worked  out,  it  is  already 
filled  with  the  same  square  sets  as  are  being  built  up  from  below, 
and  the  latter  rise  into  their  proper  places  and  fit  as  neatly  as 
the  squares  on  a  checker  or  chess-board. 

The  sets  are  six  feet  in  height  by  five  feet  in  width,  and  as 
they  rise,  floors  of  strong  plank  are  laid  upon  each  set.  Thus 
there  are  seen  floors  some  six  feet  apart  from  the  bottom  to  the 
top  of  the  level. 

In  these  floors  are  square  openings  as  for  trap-doors,  with 
short  flights  of  steps  leading  from  floor  to  floor.  The  floors  are 
pushed  out  against  the  breasts  of  ore  on  all  sides  as  the  stope  is 
extended.  A  light  blast  of  giant-powder  being  exploded  in  the 
face  of  the  ore-breast,  the  mass  is  shattered,  and  is  then  easily 
pulled  down  by  the  picks  of  the  miners. 

As  the  ore  is  dug  down  it  falls  upon  the  floors,  from  which  it 
is  easily  shovelled  into  the  wheelbarrows,  by  means  of  which  it 
is  carried  to  the  chutes.  These  chutes  lead  down  to  ore-bins  on 
the  track-floor,  where  the  cars  are  loaded  which  carry  the  ore  to 


SUPPORTING  THE  ROOF.  313 

the  main  shaft  and  finally  up  to  the  surface,  and  out  along  a 
track  which  leads  to  the  ore-house,  from  which  it  is  sent  to  the 
mills.  This  is  the  method  of  timbering  rrfines  that  was  invented 
by  Mr.  Philip  Deidesheimer,  in  the  early  days  of  Washoe,  when 
he  was  superintendent  of  the  old  Ophir  mine.  The  building  up 
of  timbers  in  square  sets  or  cribs  is  found  to  be  exactly  what  is 
required,  as  a  cavity  of  any  size,  however  great,  can  by  this  plan 
be  filled  up  and  its  roof  supported. 

In  order  to  still  further  secure  the  mine,  it  is  usual  to  plank 
or  timber  up  a  section  of  four  of  these  square  sets,  and  fill  them 
in  from  bottom  to  top  with  waste  rock.  Thus  is  provided  a  large 
column  of  stone  reaching  up  to  and  supporting  the  roof  of  the 
mine.  Such  columns  are  constructed  in  a  number  of  places,  at 
suitable  intervals  throughout  each  level  of  the  mine,  and  they 
are  found  to  stand  more  strain  than  would  all  of  the  timber  that 
could  be  piled  into  a  level.  Being  built  up  of  loose  rocks  they 
gradually  yield  for  a  time,  but  still  stand  as  firmly  in  their  places 
as  bjefore,  whereas  a  solid  column  of  stone  would  be  crushed 
into  a  thousand  fragments,  and  would  let  down  the  whole  upper 
part  of  the  mine. 

In  some  mines  many  blocks  of  porphyry  and  other  barren  rock 
are  found,  with  the  ore,  making  it  necessary  to  do  a  great  deal  of 
assorting,  but  in  the  Consolidated  Virginia  mine  there  is  no  work 
of  this  kind  to  be  done,  at  least  not  on  the  i5oo-foot  level, 
where  they  are  stoping  out  in  the  bonanza.  There  is  nothing  to 
do  but  dig  down  the  rich  masses  of  black  sulphuret  and  chloride 
ores,  shovel  them  into  the  cars,  and  send  them  to  the  surface  to 
be  taken  to  the  mills,  and  the  same  is  the  case  in  the  California 
mine. 

Samples  are  taken  from  each  car-load  of  ore  down  in  the 
mine,  when  it  reaches  the  main  shaft ;  at  the  surface  other  sam- 
ples are  taken,  and  at  the  mills  samples  are  taken  of  the  pulp, 
every  hour,  as  it  runs  from  the  batteries — in  short,  the  ore  is 
sampled  everywhere,  and  at  all  stages  in  the  handling,  from  the 
ore-breasts  till  it  has  passed  through  the*  mills,  and  finally 
appears  in  the  shape  of  large,  shining  silver  bricks,  each  weigh- 
ing a  hundred  pounds  or  more.  All  the  samples  thus  taken 
are  carefully  assayed,  and  the  results  compared  and  noted. 

An  incline  is  simply  an  inclined  extension  of  the  main  shaft, 


314:  WHA  T  THE  "GIRAFFE  "  CAN  CARR  Y. 

from  some  convenient  point  below,  or  rather  at  or  near  the  point 
where  the  shaft  strikes  the  west  wall  of  the  vein.  The  Corn- 
stock  lode  dips  to  the  eastward  at  an  angle  of  from  thirty-five  to 
forty-five  degrees,  and  as  the  main  working  shaft  of  a  mine  is 
always  sunk  to  a  considerable  distance — a  thousand  feet  or  more 
— to  the  eastward  of  the  croppings  [/.  ^.that  part  of  the  lode  which 
comes  to  the  surface  of  the  earth],  the  west  wall  is  not  reached 
until  the  shaft  has  attained  a  depth  of  from  1000  to  1500  feet, 
depending  upon  how  far  east  of  the  croppings  it  was  sunk. 

The  main  incline  of  a  mine  is  of  about  the  same  dimensions 
as  the  main  shaft,  and  is  timbered  in  much  the  same  way.  In 
the  Consolidated  Virginia  mine  there  is  as  yet  no  incline,  but  at 
the  Crown  Point  mine  is  to  be  seen  one  that  is  a  model  in  every 
respect.  This  incline  starts  at  the  noo-foot  level,  from  the 
bottom  of  the  vertical  shaft,  and  goes  down  with  the  dip  of  the 
vein  (at  an  angle  of  about  thirty-five  degrees),  to  the  lyoo-foot 
level,  its  present  terminus.  A  track  is  laid  on  its  bottom,  of 
ordinary  railroad  iron,  and  as  neither  cages  nor  a  car  of  the  usual 
pattern  can  be  used  in  an  incline,  recourse  is  had  to  another 
device.  A  kind  of  car  called  a  "  giraffe  "  is  used  for  hoisting 
through  an  incline.  It  has  low  wheels  in  front  and  hi'gh  ones 
behind;  thus  the  body  of  the  giraffe  stands  level,  the  same  as  a 
common  ore-car  on  an  ordinary  track. 

The  giraffe  is  capable  of  carrying  eight  tons  of  ore — more 
than  eight  ordinary  car-loads.  It  is  lowered  down  the  track  to 
the  bottom  of  the  incline,  and  hauled  up  to  the  foot  of  the  shaft 
by  means  of  a  round  steel-wire  cable  which  runs  upon  a  reel  at 
the  surface. 

The  cable  passes  over  a  large  iron  pulley  at  the  top  of  the 
vertical  shaft,  and  under  a  second  pulley  of  the  same  kind  at  its 
bottom.  The  cable  is  also  supported  by  rollers,  placed  in  the 
centre  of  the  track,  as  it  travels  up  and  down  the  incline,  other- 
wise its  great  weight  would  cause  it  to  drag  upon  the  ground. 
From  the  upper  side  of  an  incline,  stations  are  made,  the  same 
as  they  are  made  at*  intervals  along  a  vertical  shaft ;  drifts  are 
then  run,  and  the  work  of  cross-cutting  and  prospecting  ths 
vein  goes  on  in  the  same  way  as  when  the  ore-body  is  approached 
by  means  of  a  shaft.  The  giraffe  has  in  front  and  on  the  "  out- 
side" two  seats,  facing  each  other,  on  which  six  passengers 


GNOMES  OF  THE  MINE.  315 

can  ride  very  comfortably.  Sometimes  there  is  hitched  behind 
the  giraffe  a  second  car  of  the  same  pattern,  called  the  "  back- 
action." 

There  is  not  a  little  of  novelty  in  a  ride  up  an  incline  on  a 
"giraffe."  The  conductor  of  the  "  train,"  who  is  seated  by  our 
side,  gives  the  signal  for  starting  by  pulling  a  wire  and  striking 
upon  the  engineer's  bell — far  away  up  the  incline  and  up 
the  vertical  shaft,  and  some  distance  beyond  that  again  in  the 
engine-house — a  certain  number  of  strokes.  Instantly  we  start,, 
and  soon  are  darting  up  the  steep  iron  way  at  a  terrific  rate  of 
speed.  Lamps  are  placed  at  intervals  on  the  sides  of  the  incline ; 
besides,  we  carry  lanterns,  and  there  are  lights  burning  at  all 
the  stations.  Thus  our  underground  railroad  is  well  lighted  up. 
We  have  a  good  view  of  the  track,  and  can  see  the  rails  glisten- 
ing far  ahead  of  and  above  us. 

We  rush  up  this  steep  road  so  rapidly  that  the  posts  along  the 
sides  of  the  incline  resemble  a  fine-toothed  comb.  To  look 
ahead  and  see  before  you,  and  high  above  you,  a  hundred  yards 
or  more  of  semi-vertical  railroad,  up  which  you  are  thundering 
at  whirlwind  speed,  is  strikingly  the  reverse  of  natural.  Going 
down  does  not  in  any  way  interfere  with  your  notions  of  the 
"eternal  fitness  of  things,"  for  it  is  quite  natural  for  anything 
that  is  loose  to  run  down  hill,  but  this  fierce  darting  up  the  steep 
iron  rails  somewhat  unsettles  you. 

Up  this  queer  railroad  you  are  hurled  through  the  caverns  of 
the  gazing  Troglodytes,  till  you  reach  the  foot  of  the  vertical 
shaft,  when  they  transfer  you  to  a  cage,  and  you  are  shot  out  at 
the  top,  much  as  the  "Red  Gnome,"  in  the  play,  is  shot  up 
through  the  trap  in  the  stage-floor  of  a  theatre. 

A  giraffe  is  provided  with  a  safety-apparatus  somewhat  similar 
to  that  on  a  cage.  A  large  wooden  rail  runs  the  whole  length 
of  the  track.  Extending  from  the  side  of  the  giraffe,  and  almost 
clasping  this  rail,  are  two  toothed,  eccentric  wheels.  Should 
the  cable  break,  these  wheels  would  instantly  grasp  and  clasp 
the  rail,  and  the  greater  the  weight  upon  the  oar  the  more  fiercely 
they  would  bite  into  the  wood,  and  retain  their  hold  upon  it. 
This  invention  has  been  the  means  of  saving  scores  of  lives. 

The  "  sump  "  is  the  well  or  hole  sunk  below  the  bottom  of  a 
shaft,  for  the  purpose  of  holding  the  water  flowing  in  from 
18 


316 


WHA  T  IS  "SUMPF? 


above.  In  this  is  placed  the  "  suction  "  of  the  pump,  and  into 
it  is  collected  the  water  from  all  parts  of  the  mine.  Although 
"sump  "is  now  considered  an  English  word,  it  was  doubtless 
derived  from  the  German  word,  "  sumpf,"  which  means  a  marsh, 
pool,  bog,  or  fen.  When  miners  fall  down  a  shaft  it  is  frequently 
necessary  to  fish  their  mangled  remains  out  of  the  sump  with 
grappling  irons. 

As  some  persons  may  desire  to  know  how  sinking  can  be 
carried  on  in  the  bottom  of  a  shaft  where  there  is  a  strong  in- 
flux of  water,  it  may  be  well  to  explain  the  matter.  On  the  end 
of  the  pump-column  or  tube  which  comes  down  near  to  the 
bottom  of  the  shaft,  is  a  piece  of  flexible  hose,  the  same  as  the 
"  suction  "  of  a  fire-engine,  and  this  is  moved  about  from  side  to 
side  in  the  shaft,  always  keeping  the  end  of  it  in  the  low  places 
where  the  water  collects. 


CHAPTER  XLIII. 

CURIOSITIES    OF   VENTILATION. 

THE  only  air-shaft  on  the  Comstock  lode  worthy  of  the 
name,  is  that  of  the  Belcher  Mining  Company.     In 
many  situations  air-shafts  do  not  seem  to  be  required, 
connections  with  the  main  working  shafts  of  other  mines  serv- 
ing the  same  purpose.     In  some  places  along  the  lode  are  old 
shafts — sunk  in  the  early  days — with  which  connection  has 
been  made,  and  these  often  d'o  very  good  service  as  air-shafts. 
The  air-shaft  of  the  Belcher  Company  is  sunk  at  a  point  about 
100  yards  to  the  northward  of  their  main  hoisting-works. 

The  size  of  the  excavation  made  in  the  rock  is  8x14  feet. 
This,  when  timbered  up,  gives  two  compartments,  each  6x6 
in  size.  Where  the  rock  is  hard  and  perfectly  solid  the  shaft 
is  cribbed  with  timbers  6x12  inches  in  size;  but  where  it  is 
soft  and  inclined  to  swell,  it  is  timbered  in  sets;  timbers  12 
inches  square  being  used.  All  of  this  work  is  done  in  the 
most  substantial  manner  possible.  From  the  surface  to  the 
looo-foot  level  the  shaft  is  carried  down  vertically,  but  from 
this  point  it  is  on  an  incline  corresponding  to  the  dip  of  the 
ledge,  which  is  about  36  degrees,  and  to  the  east.  The  portion 
of  the  shaft  which  is  carried  down  on  an  incline  was  kept  in 
the  west  country  rock  lying  back  of  the  ledge.  The  object  in 
keeping  in  this  rock  was  to  avoid  ground  that  would  be  liable 
to  swell  and  then  crush  in  the  sides  of  the  shaft. 

This  shaft  is  of  the  same  size  and  is  constructed  after  the 
same  plan  as  that  destroyed  by  fire,  October  30,  1874,  by 
which  accident  a  large  number  of  men  were  badly  burned, 
and  some  lost  their  lives.  It  extends  down  to  the  lowest 
levels  of  the  mine  and  will  be  continued  downward  as 

317 


318  DRAUGHTS  AND  DRIFTS. 

new  levels  are  opened.  In  excavating  the  shaft,  work  was 
begun  at  the  same  time  on  the  surface  and  down  at  the  850- 
foot  level  of  the  mine — the  men  below  digging  upward  while 
those  above  were  sinking. 

The  shaft  is  "  downcast,"  that  is,  the  air  from  the  surface  of 
the  earth  is  drawn  or  sucked  down  into  it  and  finds  its  way 
out  through  the  main  working  shaft  and  other  shafts  connect- 
ing with  the  mine  by  means  of  drifts.  The  first  shaft  was  also 
a  "  downcast,"  but  when  on  fire,  the  draught  was  changed,  and  a 
column  of  flame  darted  upward  from  its  mouth  a  hundred  feet 
into  the  air,  with  a  roar  that  could  be  heard  at  the  distance  of 
a  mile  or  more.  Had  not  the  shaft  caved  and  filled  up  with 
rock  after  the  timbers  were  burned  out  of  it,  it  would  always- 
have  remained  an  "upcast;  "  at  least,  so  say  all  the  old  miners, 

Here  it  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  speak  of  some  of  the 
curiosities  of  ventilation. 

The  Yellow- Jacket  shaft,  previous  to  the  great  fire  in  that 
mine  some  years  ago,  had  a  strong  draught  downward;  the  fire 
changed  the  draught,  and  it  has  ever  since  remained  an  "  up- 
cast." This  is  a  curious  freak  of  nature  which  all  old  miners 
have  observed.  When  once  the  change  in  the  draught  takes 
place  it  is  permanent.  A  curious  thing  in  ventilation — and  it 
is  a  nut  for  the  scientists  to  crack — is  that  everywhere  along  the 
Comstock  lode  the  tendency  of  all  currents  of  air  is  to  the  south- 
ward— in  the  same  direction  that  the  ore  chimneys  tend.  Here 
certainly  is  at  work  another  mysterious  force  of  nature.  This- 
tendency  of  the  air-currents  to  move  southward  has  never 
been  overcome,  except  in  one  or  two  instances,  and  these 
exceptional  cases  will  presently  be  mentioned.  There  are 
some  queer  courses  taken  by  currents  of  air  when  once  they 
have  descended  beneath  the  surface  of  the  earth,  which  none  of 
our  scientific  men  have  attempted  to  explain.  The  commonly 
accepted  theory  is  that  when  two  shafts  are  connected  by 
means  of  a  drift,  the  draught  or  ascending  current  of  air  will  be 
through  the  higher  shaft — the  longer  branch  of  the  siphon — 
but  exactly  the  reverse  is  seen  if  the  short  shaft  happens  to 
stand  to  the  southward  of  the  long  one. 

The  air  will  even  go  down  a  shaft  and  crawl  out  through 
a  tunnel  when  that  tunnel  runs  in  a  southerly  direction! 


SOUTHWARD  CURRENTS.  319 

When  the  Union  tunnel  connected  with  the  old  Ophir  mine 
the  air  did  not  draw  through  the  tunnel  and  pass  up  and  out 
through  the  main  shaft,  but  came  out  of  the  mouth  of  the 
tunnel.  When  the  old  Best  and  Belcher  works  connected 
with  the  Gould  and  Curry  tunnel,  the  same  thing  was  seen — 
the  air  went  down  the  shaft  and  passed  out  at  the  mouth  of 
the  tunnel.  About  the  next  connection  of  the  kind  made  on 
the  lead  was  between  the  Crown  Point  and  Belcher,  at  the 
depth  of  160  feet ;  and  the  current  of  air  went  down  the  higher 
shaft,  moved  southward,  and  came  out  at  the  Belcher.  Next 
the  Yellow-Jacket  and  the  Crown  Point  connected,  and  the 
draught  was  southward  to  the  Crown  Point.  The  Alpha  and 
the  Imperial  next  connected,  and  the  draught  went  south  to  the 
Jacket.  When  the  Gould  and  Curry  and  the  Savage  connec- 
ted, the  draught  went  south  to  the  Savage.  When  connection 
was  made  between  the  Ophir  and  the  Consolidated  Virginia, 
the  air  went  south  to  the  Consolidated.  The  only  places  I 
know  of  on  the  lead  where  the  air  moves  to  the  northward  are 
between  the  Gould  and  Curry  and  the  Consolidated  Virginia, 
and  between  the  Hale  and  Norcross  and  the  Savage,  and  here 
it  probably  would  not  move  north  but  for  strong  inducements. 

The  latest  instance  of  this  tendency  of  currents  of  air  to 
move  southward  in  mines  is  seen  in  the  Overman  mine. 
When  that  mine  was  connected  with  the  Belcher,  the  draught 
was  southward,  out  through  the  Overman  shaft,  though  it 
stands  much  lower  than  any  of  the  shafts  connected  with  the 
Belcher  mine. 

From  the  facts  given,  it  will  be  seen  that  there  are  some 
curious  things  connected  with  the  ventilation  of  mines,  and 
that  it  is  not  altogether  impossible  that  Sutro's  big  tunnel 
may  draw  backwards,  when  completed. 

A  great  deal  of  machinery  is  now  beginning  to  be  used  on 
the  lower  levels  of  the  principal  mines  on  the  Comstock. 
Some  years  ago  steam-engines  were  set  up  in  the  lower  levels 
of  some  of  the  leading  mines,  with  boilers,  furnaces,  and  all, 
just  as  on  the  surface.  This  would  not  do.  The  heat  of  the 
furnaces,  boilers,  and  steam,  added  to  the  heat  of  the  mine, 
could  not  be  endured  by  the  engineers  and  others  whose  duty 
it  was  to  "stand  watches"  about  the  machinerv. 


320  USE  OF  COMPRESSED  AIR. 

A  few  years  since  an  engine  was  set  up  on  the  looo-foot 
level  of  the  Gould  and  Curry  mine,  and  steam  was  conducted 
to  it  from  boilers  situated  on  the  surface.  When  this  engine 
was  started  up  there  was  a  popping  of  champagne  corks  away 
down  there  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  and  a  good  time  was 
had  drinking  to  the  success  of  the  experiment.  But  it  was 
not  a  success  after  all — it  wouldn't  do.  The  ground  began 
swelling,  the  timbers  were  crushed  and  twisted,  the  engine 
bed  could  not  be  kept  level  three  days  at  a  time — it  was  like  a 
boat  in  a  rough  sea,  now  on  this  end,  and  now  on  that — and 
the  experiment  was  a  failure. 

The  latest  attempt  to  use  steam  machinery  underground 
was  at  the  Ophir  mine.  A  boiler  and  engine  were  set  up  on 
the  1465-foot  level,  near  the  main  shaft,  up  which  was  ex- 
tended a  sheet-iron  smoke-stack  reaching  to  the  surface.  This 
engine  was  used  in  sinking  a  winze  (situated  365  feet  to  the 
eastward)  to  the  lyoo-foot  level,  and  also  in  doing  some  work 
on  the  level  last  named.  The  furnace  and  boiler  heated  up 
the  level  to  such  a  degree  that  it  was  "killing"  to  the  men. 
The  boiler  still  stands  where  it  was  set  up,  but  is  now  used  as 
a  reservoir  for  compressed  air. 

The  introduction  of  engines  and  machinery  to  be  run  by 
means  of  compressed  air,  was  a  grand  forward  stride  in  the 
science  of  mining. 

In  the  Consolidated  Virginia  and  California  mines  are  to 
be  seen  at  work  a  number  of  small  engines  that  are  run  by 
compressed  air,  furnished  by  two  powerful  compressors  that 
are  constantly  in  operation  on  the  surface.  The  air  is  carried 
down  the  main  shaft  in  a  large  iron  pipe,  and  from  this  smaller 
pipes  branch  off  in  all  directions,  and  are  carried  along  the 
roofs  of  the  drifts  and  cross-cuts,  as  we  see  gas-pipes  running 
through  buildings  in  the  upper-world. 

Thus  is  the  compressed  air  carried  down  into  all  parts  of 
the  mine  where  work  is  being  done.  In  places  we  see  small 
engines  «at  work  at  the  top  of  winzes,  where  they  do  all  the 
hoisting,  and  effect  a  great  saving  of  both  money  and  muscle. 
At  other  points,  in  passing  along  a  drift,  we  suddenly  come 
upon  a  small  chamber  constructed  on  one  side,  and  sitting  in 
this  we  see  a  "  cunning  "  little  engine,  industriously  at  work 


IND  USTRIO US  LITTLE  ENGINES.  321 

at  running  a  blower  (a  machine  such  as  we  see  in  foundries 
for  furnishing  a  blast  to  the  cupola,  where  metal  is  melted), 
which  blower  is  sending  a  stream  of  fresh  air  through  a  pipe 
to  men  working  in  some  far-away,  heated  cross-cut  or  upraise. 

There  are  quite  a  number  of  these  little  engines  and  blowers 
in  various  parts  of  the  mine,  and  instead  of  heating  they 
greatly  assist  in  cooling  those  parts  of  the  mine  in  which 
they  are  used. 

As  the  drifts  and  cross-cuts  are  advanced,  the  air-pipes  are 
carried  along  their  roofs  or  sides,  and  are  in  readiness  for  use 
in  running  the  Burleigh  drills,  by  means  of  which  the  holes 
are  drilled  in  the  face  of  the  drift  where  the  rock  requires  .to 
be  blasted.  The  air-pipes  being  in  place  in  all  the  cross- 
cuts and  drifts,  the  'Burleigh  drill  may  be  moved  about  from 
place  to  place  as  required,  and  thus  a  single  drill  can  be  used 
in  several  different  drifts  during  the  day.  When  a  sufficient 
number  of  holes  for  blasting  have  been  made  in  one  drift,  the 
drill  is  placed  upon  its  carriage  and  is  moved  along  the  car- 
track  to  another,  where  connection  is  made  with  the  air-pipe, 
and  it  is  hammering  away  again  with  but  little  loss  of  time. 

In  the  Ophir  mine  a  small  engine,  situated  at  the  winze 
mentioned  above  as  being  365  feet  east  of  the  main  shaft, 
does  all  the  hoisting  from  the  lyoo-foot  level,  and  in  a  more 
satisfactory  manner  in  every  respect  than  the  same  work  was 
formerly  done  by  the  old  steam-engine.  On  the  ii5o-foot 
level  of  the  Consolidated  Virginia  mine  a  winze  was  sunk  to 
the  depth  of  140  feet,  with  one  of  these  little  air-engines,  and 
it  could  have  been  sunk  to  any  depth  required,  but  for  an 
influx  of  water  which  was  too  strong  to  be  contended  with 
in  that  remote  part  of  the  mine  at  that  time. 

Each  year  more  and  more  machinery  will  be  run  in  the 
mines  of  the  Comstock,  by  means  of  compressed  air.  It  is 
exactly  what  is  needed,  as  all  the  air  exhausted  in  the  lower 
levels  of  a  mine  is  beneficial  and  is  so  much  ventilation 
and  so  much  food  gained  for  the  lungs  of  the  miners.  Com- 
pressors, and  machinery  to  be  worked  by  them,  are  being 
ordered  by  all  of  the  leading  mines,  and  are  already  considered 
indispensable  appliances  in  modern  mining. 


CHAPTER  XLIV. 

UNDERGROUND   BUSINESS   ARRANGEMENTS. 

IN  order  that  the  reader  may  obtain  something  like  a  correct 
idea  of  the  appearance  of  the  interior  of  a  first-class  mine, 
let  him  imagine  it  hoisted  out  of  the  ground  and  left 
standing  upon  the  surface.  He  would  then  see  before  him  an 
immense  structure,  four  or  five  times  as  large  as  the  greatest 
hotel  in  America,  about  twice  or  three  times  as  wide,  and  over 
2000  feet  high.  The  several  levels  of  the  mine  would  represent 
the  floors  of  the  building,  These  floors  would  be  100  feet  apart 
—that  is,  there  would  be  in  the  building  twenty  stories,  each  100 
feet  in  height.  In  a  grand  hotel  communication  between  these 
floors  would  be  by  means  of  an  elevator ;  in  the  mine  would  be 
in  use  the  same  contrivances,  but  instead  of  an  "  elevator,"  it 
would  be  called  a  "  cage." 

Our  mine,  raised  to  the  surface,  as  we  have  supposed,  would 
present  much  the  same  appearance  as  would  a  large  building 
with  the  side  walls  removed,  allowing  a  full  view  of  all  of  its 
floors  to  be  obtained.  As  we  should  see  the  elevator  stopping  at 
various  floors  to  take  on  and  put  off  passengers  and  baggage, 
so  we  should  see  the  cage  stopping  at  the  several  levels  to  take 
on  and.  put  off  miners  or  full  or  empty  ore-cars. 

Upon  the  various  floors  of  our  mine  we  should  see  hundreds 
of  men  at  work,  but  there  would  be  seen  between  the  floors,  in 
many  places,  a  solid  mass  of  ore,  in  which  the  men  were  working 
their  way  up  and  rearing  their  scaffolding  of  timbers  toward  the" 
floor  above. 

Not  only  would  the  men  be  seen  thus  at  work,  but  there  would 
also  be  seen  at  work  on  the  various  floors,  engines  and  other 

322 


CHANGING  SHIFTS.  323 


machinery ;  with,  high  above  all,  the  huge  pump,  swaying  up 
and  down  its  great  rod,  2,000  feet  in  length  and  hung  at  several 
points  with  immense  balance-bobs,  to  prevent  it  being  pulled 
apart  by  its  own  weight. 

Occasionally,  too,  we  should  see  all  of  the  men  disappear  from 
a  floor,  and  soon  after  would  be  heard  in  rapid  succession  ten  or 
a  dozen  stunning  reports — the  noise  of  exploding  blasts. 

When  blasts  are  about  to  be  let  off  in  a  mine,  after  the  fuses 
have  been  lighted  and  the  miners  are  retreating  to  a  place  of 
safety,  "  Fire  !  "  is  the  startling  cry  that  is  heard  from  them,  as 
they  fall  back  along  the  drifts  and  cross-cuts.  The  cry  is  well 
understood  throughout  the  mine  to  mean  no. more  than  that  fire 
has  been  set  to  the  fuses,  and  that  several  blasts  will  shortly  go  off. 

In  the  Consolidated  Virginia  mine,  and  in  all  other  leading 
mines,  three  shifts  of  men  are  employed,  each  shift  working 
eight  hours. 

The  morning  shift  goes  on  at  7  o'clock.  Before  descending 
the  shaft  the  men  go  to  the  office  of  the  time-keeper,  situated 
in  the  hoisting  works,  and  give  their  names  at  a  window  which 
resembles  the  window  of  the  ticket-office  at  a  railroad-station. 
These  men  come  up  out  of  the  mine  at  3  o'clock  p.  M.,  and  again 
go  to  the  window  of  the  time-keeper's  office,  and  give  their  names. 

The  afternoon  shifts  go  down  at  this  hour — 3  o'clock  p.  M., — 
giving  in  their  names  "before  descending  the  shaft.  They  come 
up  out  of  the  mine  at  IT  o'clock  at  night,  but  do  not  give  their 
names.  If  any  men  are  missing,  or  are  taken  sick,  and  do  not 
work,  their  names  are  reported  by  the  bosses  of  their  shift. 

The  night  shift  go  down  into  the  mine  at  n  o'clock  at  night 
and  come  out  at  7  o'clock  in  the  morning,  when  they  go  to  the 
time-keeper's  window,  give  their  names,  and  get  their  mark  for 
the  day's  work  done.  There  are  three  shift-bosses  for  each 
level  where  regular  eight-hour  shifts  are  being  worked. 

When  the  shifts  are  being  changed  the  men  do  not  rus*h  pro- 
miscuously to  the  shaft,  but  form  in  a  line  and  march  up  to  the 
cages  in  single  file,  just  as  men  are  seen  to  form  in  line  in  front 
of  the  window  of  a  post-office  or  at  the  polls  on  the  occasion  of 
an  election.  On  the  levels  below,  when  the  men  are  coming  up, 
they  form  in  lines  in  the  same  way  in  front  of  the  shaft.  No 
crowding  or  disorder  of  any  kind  is  permitted. 


324:  A  SHIFT-BOSS'S  REPORT. 

The  shift-bosses  report  to  the  time-keepers  the  nurrberof  men 
employed  on  their  shift,  the  number  of  car-loads  of  ore,  and  the 
number  of  car-loads  of  waste  rock  hoisted  during  the  shift,  all  of 
which  is  placed  in  a  daily  report,  for  which  there  are,  in  the 
office  of  the  time  keeper,  printed  blanks.  A  car-load  of  ore  is 
calculated  to  weigh  1,800  pounds,  and  the  number  of  tons 
hoisted  during  the  day  is  also  figured  up  and  set  down  in  the 
blank.  The  following  is  one  of  the  blanks  used  in  the  Consoli- 
dated Virginia — filled  up  with  the  exact  work  of  the  day  on 
which  it  is  dated — the  names  given  are  those  of  the  shift-bosses : 

CONSOLIDATED  VIRGINIA  MINING  COMPANY. 

DAILY    REPORT    OF    ORE    EXTRACTED. 
DATE.  NUMBER  CARS       CARS  TONS  TOTAL  TONS 

OP  OP  OP  OP  OP 

March  igth,  1875.         MEN.         WASTE.    ORE.    ORE  HOISTED.  ORE  HOISTED. 

1300  STATION  LEVEL. 

7  o  clock  )  17 

3    do.     \  Wilson.  8 

II    do.     )  8 

1400  STATION  LEVEL. 

7  o'clock.  Dan.  Skerry,  75  4  54  48  I20O 

3     do.     Wm.  Harper,  78  7  67  60  600 

II     do.     Jas.  McCourt,  76  5  79  71  200         180 

1500  STATION  LEVEL. 

7  o'clock.  Jas.  O'Toole,    63  6  65  58    1000 

3    do.      Wm.  Odey,        53  3  131  117   1800 

II     do.      Richd.  Lewis,  54  7          117          105     600          281     1400 

Hoisted  through 

G  and  C  Shaft, 

March  1 8th, '75.  41  26  38  38  38        * 


Total  No.  of  Tons,  499    1400 


180  Tons  to  Mill  Lump, 
281     "      "    Mine    " 


By  this  report  it  will  be  seen  that  the  account  of  the  ore  taken 
out  through  the  Gould  and  Curry  ("  G  &  C.")  shaft  is  not 
handed  in  until  the  day  after  the  work  is  done.  The  report 
also  shows  the  number  of  tons  sent  to  the  dump  of  the  big  mill,* 
near  the  mine,  and  the  number  sent  to  the  dump  of  the  mine  to 
be  shipped  to  other  mills.  In  all  departments  an  equally  exact 
account  is  kept  of  all  work  done. 


DIAGRAM    SHOWING   HEIGHT    OF   MINES. 


USEFUL  ITEMS.  325 


In  the  Consolidated  Virginia  mine  there  is  a  man  who  is 
what  may  be  called  a  general  foreman.  He  has  charge  of  the 
shaft,  the  prospecting  drifts,  and  cross-cuts,  and  attends  to  the 
ventilation  of  the  mine  and  to  keeping  it  clear  of  water;  in  short, 
looks  after  underground  affairs  generally. 

After  ore  has  been  struck  in  the  drifts  and  the  work  of  ex- 
traction begins,  this  officer  turns  that  portion  of  the  mine  over 
to  one  of  the  foremen  who  superintends  the  work  of  extracting 
the  ore. 

There  is  always  a  day-boss  on  the  i5oo-foot  level,  and  at. 
night  his  place  is  filled  by  a  second  general  foreman  of  the 
underground  regions,  who  has  charge  of  everything  by  night,  as 
the  other  officer  has  during  the  day. 

Besides  the  miners  there  are  employed  a  great  number  of 
timbermen,  who  look  after  the  timbers  and  the  timbering  ;  the 
pump  man,  who  takes  care  of  the  pumps ;  the  watchmen,  who  go 
their  rounds,  each  on  his  level*  to  look  out  for  fire  and  to  keep 
an  eye  on  things  generally ;  and  the  pick-boy,  who  goes  about 
through  the  mine  gathering  up  the  dull  picks  and  sending  them 
up  the  shaft  to  be  sharpened,  who  carries  the  sharp  picks  to  the 
places  where  they  are  wanted,  who  distributes  water  among  the 
men  and  who,  in  short,  is  general  errand-boy  in  the  mine.  As 
may  be  supposed,  his  position  is  no  sinecure. 

The  following  amounts  of  timber,  wood,  and  other  mining 
supplies  are  used  per  month  in  the  Consolidated  Virginia  mine, 
and,  from  this,  what  is  used  in  other  leading  mines  may  be 
surmised  :  Feet  of  timber  per  month,  500,000  ;  cords  of  wood, 
550 ;  boxes  of  candles,  350 ;  giant-powder,  2  tons ;  100  gallons 
of  coal-oil,  200  gallons  of  lard-oil,  800  pounds  of  tallow,  20,000 
feet  of  fuse,  37  tons  of  ice,  3,000  bushels  of  charcoal,  i-J  tons  of 
steel,  5  tons  of  round  and  square  iron,  4  tons  of  hard  coal 
(Cumberland),  50  kegs  of  nails,  and  a  thousand  and  one  other 
articles  in  the  same  proportion.  The  amount  of  timbers  buried 
in  the  mines  of  the  Comstock  is  almost  beyond  computation.. 
It  is  more  than  there  is  in  all  of  the  buildings  in  the  State  of 
Nevada. 

Nearly  all  the  pine  forests  on  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada  Mountains,  for  a  distance  of  fifty  or  sixty  miles  north 
and  south,  have  been  swept  away  and  buried  in  the  lower  levels,. 


£26  MODERN  TROGLODYTES. 

or  consumed  under  the  boilers  of  the  mills  and  hoisting  works. 
Already  the  lumbermen  are  pushing  their  way  beyond  the  summit 
of  the  mountains,  and  the  demand  for  timber  and  lumber  is 
increasing  every  month,  as  new  levels  and  new  mines  are  opened. 

In  a  silver-mine  it  is  not  all  dark  and  dismal  below,  as  many 
persons  suppose.  On  the  contrary,  the  long  drifts  and  cross-cuts 
are  lighted  up  with  candles  and  lamps.  It  is  only  the  little- 
used  drifts,  in  parts  of  the  mine  distant  from  the  main  workings, 
that  absolute  and  pitchy  darkness  prevails. 

In  the  principal  levels  candles  and  lamps  are  always  burning. 
When  it  is  midnight  above,  and  storms  and  darkness  prevail 
throughout  the  city,  whole  acres  of  ground,  hundreds  of  feet  below 
in  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  are  lighted  up ;  and  down  there  all  is 
calm  and  silent,  save  when  sounds  peculiar  to  the  place  break 
the  stillness. 

In  a  mine  there  is  neither  day  nor  night ;  it  is  always  candle- 
light. If  we  go  into  a  mine  late  in  the  afternoon  and  remain 
below  for  some  hours,  a  gloomy  feeling  is  experienced  when  we 
come  to  the  surface  and  find  it  is  everywhere  night  above.  We 
almost  wish  ourselves  back  in  the  lower  levels  of  the  mine,  for 
when  we  are  there  it  seems  to  be  always  daylight  above. 

On  the  principal  levels  of  a  mine  we  have  long  drifts,  galleries 
and  cross-cuts  which  intersect  each  other,  much  as  do  the  streets 
and  alleys  in  some  old-fashioned,  overcrowded  village — some 
village  seated  in  a  confined  place,  where  encroaching  precipices 
seem  to  crush  it  out  of  shape. 

Our  underground  streets  are  not  wanting  in  life.  As  we  pass 
along  the  highways  and  byways  of  the  lower  levels,  we  meet  with 
the  people  of  the  place  at  every  turn.  One  mine  connects  with 
another,  and  so  we  have  streets  3  miles  long.  There  are  employed 
in  a  single  mine  from  500  to  700  men ;  a  number  sufficient  to  popu- 
late a  town  of  considerable  size.  Men  meet  and  pass  us — all 
going  about  their  business,  as  on  the  surface — and  frequently  a 
turn  brings  us  in  sight  of  whole  groups  of  them.  We  seem  to 
have  been  suddenly  brought  face  to  face  with  a  new  and  strange 
race  of  men.  All  are  naked  to  the  waist,  and  many  from  the  •• 
middle  of  their  thighs  to  their  feet.  Superb,  muscular  forms  are 
seen  on  all  sides  and  in  all  attitudes,  gleaming  white  as  marble 
in  the  light  of  the  many  candles.  We  everywhere  see  men  who 


SHIR  TLESS  BUT  HOT. 


would  delight  the  eye  of  the  sculptor.  These  men  seem  of  a 
different  race  from  those  we  see  .above  —  the  clothes-wearers. 
Before  us  we  have  the  Troglodytes—  the  cave-dwellers.  We  go 
back  in  thought  to  the  time  when  the  human  race  housed  in 
caverns  ;  not  only  far  up  the  Nile,  as  the  ancients  supposed, 
but  in  every  land,  at  a  certain  stage  of  their  advancement  in  the 
arts  of  life. 

Not  infrequently,  while  travelling  along  a  lonely  passage  in  some 
remote  section  of  the  mine,  we  are  suddenly  confronted  by  a  man 
of  large  stature,  huge,  spreading  beard,  and  breast  covered  with 
shaggy  hair,  who  comes  sliding  down  out  of  some  narrow  side- 
drift,  lands  in  our  path,  and  for  a  moment  stands  and  gazes 
curiously  upon  us,  as  though  half  inclined  to  consider  us  intruders 
upon  his  own  peculiar  domain.  We  seem  to  have  before  us  one 
of  the  old  cave-dwellers  and  we  should  not  be  at  all  surprised  to- 
see  him  cut  a  caper  in  the  air,  brandish  a  ponderous  stone  ax, 
and  advance  upon  us  with  a  wild  whoop 

The  only  clothing  worn  by  the  men  working  in  the  lower 
levels  of  a  mine  are  a  pair  of  thin  pantaloons  or  overalls,. 
stout  shoes,  and  a  small  felt  hat  or  a  cap  such  as  cooks  are  often 
seen  to  wear.  Not  a  shirt  is  seen.  From  the  head  to  the  hins 
each  man  is  as  naked  as  on  the  day  he  was  born.  All  are  drenched 
with  perspiration,  and  their  bodies  glisten  in  the  light  of  the 
candles  as  though  they  had  just  come  up  through  the  waters  of 
some  subterranean  lake. 

In  places,  in  some  of  the  mines,  the  heat  is  so  great  that  the 
men  do  not  even  wear  overalls,  but  are  seen  in  the  breech-clout 
of  the  primitive  races.  Instead  of  a  breech-clout,  some  of  the 
miners  wear  a  pair  of  drawers  with  the  legs  cut  off  about  the 
middle  of  the  thighs.  Something  must  be  worn  on  the  head  to- 
keep  the  falling  sand  and  dirt  out  of  the  hair,  and  shoes  must  be 
worn  to  protect  the  feet  from  the  sharp  fragments  of  quartz 
which  strew  the  floors  of  the  levels.  One  may  be  well  acquainted 
with  a  miner  as  he  appears  upon  the  streets,  yet  for  a  time 
utterly  fail  to  recognize  him  as  found  attired  in  the  underground 
regions  of  a  mine. 

When  about  their  work  in  the  mine,  the  miners  have  little  to 
say,  and  in  going  about  in  the  several  levels  group  after  group 
may  be  passed  and  nothing  said  by  any  one,  except  some 


.328  FIGHTS  AND  FACTIONS. 

question  may  be  asked  by  the  foreman  of  the  level  or  the  superin- 
tendent of  the  mine,  who  are  the  usual  guides  of  those  who  visit 
these  underground  regions. 

Underground  the  men  all  have  their  respective  levels,  and 
there  alone  they  belong.  The  miner  who  works  on  the"  i4oo-foot 
level  may  not  venture  down  upon  the  1,500,  nor  up  to  the  1300. 
Those  who  are  working  on  one  level  of  a  mine  knows  no  more 
of  what  is  going  on  in  the  level  above  or  below — when  there  is 
anything  of  special  importance  being  done — than  they  do  of  the 
developments  that  are  being  made  in  the  mine  of  another  com- 
pany. The  foreman  of  one  level  does  not  intrude  upon  the 
domain  of  a  brother  foreman.  When,  for  instance,  he  has  shown 
a  visitor  through  his  own  level,  he  conducts  him  to  the  next  and 
turns  him  over  to  the  foreman  or  "  boss  "  in  charge  of  that  portion 
of  the  mine. 

In  small  or  newly-opened  mines  this  is  of  course  different,  as 
there  but  little  is  to  be  seen,  and  there  is  generally  but  a  single 
officer  in  charge 

No  righting  is  allowed  among  the  miners  while  in  the  lower 
levels.  No  matter  how  angry  they  may  become,  not  a  blow 
must  be  struck.  The  penalty  for  a  violation,  of  this  rule  is  the 
immediate  discharge  of  both  parties  to  the  quarrel. 

It  very  frequently  happens  that  two  men  who  have  had  a 
serious  misunderstanding  while  in  the  mine,  repair  to  some  quiet 
place  when  they  come  to  the  surface  and  have  their  fight  out, 
friends  on  both  sides  being  present  and  the  rules  of  the  prize 
ring  being  observed. 

Fights  growing  out  of  wrangles  in  the  mines  are  always  thus 
settled  with  fists  ;  knives  or  pistols  are  never  used  on  such  occa- 
sions. However,  there  is  much  less  quarrelling  in  the  mines 
than  would  be  supposed,  the  large  number  of  men  and  their 
various  and  antagonistic  nationalities  being  considered.  The 
fact  that  nearly  all  are  members  of  the  same  society, — the  Miners 
Union — doubtless  has,  much  to  do  with  keeping  peace  among  all 
the  large  underground  families  along  the  Comstock  lode. 


CHAPTER  XLV. 

GHOST-HAUNTED    SHAFTS. 

THUS  far  we  have  seen  only  such  levels,  drifts,  and  cross- 
cuts as  were  well-timbered  and  in  perfect  order.     We 
will  now  take  a  trip  through  an  old  upper  level,  where  the 
ore  has  all  been  extracted,  and  where  no  trouble  is  taken  to 
keep  the  ground  up — one  of  the  old  upper  levels  of  the  Belcher 
mine,  for  instance.     Here  we  find  about  ten  acres  of  worked-out 
ground  which  is  a  regular  wilderness. 

In  this  place  one  sees  something  of  the  tremendous  weight 
and  pressure  of  the  superincumbent  earth.  It  is  a  place  to  make 
the  hair  rise  erect  on  the  head  of  any  clothes-wearing  man  who 
has  not  been  scalped  by  nature  or  by  art.  The  large,  square 
timbers  are  crushed  down  to  half  their  original  height,  and  are 
splintered  and  twisted ;  chambers  originally  square  are  squeezed 
into  a  diamond  shape,  and  their  roofs  almost  touch  the  floor  in 
the  centre ;  solid  piles  of  timber  that  have  been  packed  into 
the  ground  as  long  as  there  was  room  for  another  stick,  are 
pressed  into  pancakes ;  winzes  and  chutes  are  "  telescoped ;  " 
ladder-ways,  once  spacious,  are  crushed  out  of  all  shape,  and 
now  can  hardly  accommodate  a  cat — all  is  confused  and 
shapeless. 

This  region  somewhat  resembles  the  track  of  a  tornado  in  a 
timbered  country — what  is  called  a  "windfall."  In  places  we 
enter  immense  caverns  where  the  timbers  are  gone,  and  where 
huge  flakes  of*  clay  lean  far  out  from  the  walls,  and  composedly 
look  down  upon  us  as  we  tremblingly  glide  along  underneath. 
One  is  afraid  to  sneeze  lest  he  bring  these  down  upon  his  head. 
A  smell  of  mustiness  and  decay  pervades  the  whole  place.  The 

329 


330  RATS! 


whole  level  is  gradually  settling  down  and  squeezing  together. 
There  is  no  danger  of  the  sudden  caving  of  any  considerable 
area  of  ground,  but  eventually  all  the  timbers  will  be  pressed 
into  a  pancake,  and  the  place  will  be  forever  closed. 

In  these  deserted  levels  the  paths  are  circuitous  and  uncer- 
tain, and  in  threading  the  labyrinth  of  fast-disappearing  drifts, 
galleries,  and  cross-cuts,  one  must  have  a  guide  who  passes 
through  them  almost  daily. 

To  those  not  familiar  with  mines  it  may  appear  strange,  but 
the  lower  levels — indeed,  all  of  the  levels — are  alive  with  rats. 
The  miners  never  kill  or  molest  them,  therefore  they  become 
quite  tame  and  saucy.  As  the  miners  all  carry  a  lunch  with 
them  into  the  mine,  the  rats  live  well  on  the  fragments.  These 
rats  are  really  of  service,  as  they  devour  the  scraps  of  meat  and 
bones  thrown  upon  the  ground,  which  would  in  a  short  time 
create  a  bad  odor  in  the  mine.  The  decay  of  the  smallest  thing 
in  a  mine  cannot  be  endured.  Should  a  rat  be  killed  by  any 
accident  it  must  be  sent  up  out  of  the  mine.  Should  a  small 
piece  of  cotton  cloth  be  burned  in  a  drift,  the  miners  would 
smell  it  throughout  the  level,  and  to  burn  a  small  splinter  of 
pine  would  probably  cause  serious  alarm,  if  not  a  grand  stam- 
pede among  them,  as  they  would  think  there  was  a  fire  in  the 
timbers  of  the  mine. 

In  the  old  upper  levels  we  find  as  many  rats  as  in  any  other 
place.  If  we  sit  down  upon  a  fallen  timber  and  converse  for  a 
few  minutes  they  will  come  about  us.  They  think  we  are  miners 
sitting  down  to  lunch.  They  come  and  sit  near  us  on  the  ends 
of  the  timbers,  and  cock  their  heads  this  way  and  that,  as  they 
look  inquiringly  about.  Evidently  they  do  not  at  all  understand 
it.  Why  we  should  be  sitting  there  talking,  with  no  dinner-pails 
in  sight,  seems  to  puzzle  them  not  a  little. 

There  are  frequently  rats  that  are  the  pets  of  the  men  work- 
ing in  a  particular  part  of  the  mine— a  rat  known  to  them  by  some 
mark,  as  his  having  lost  a  piece  of  his  tail.  To  this  rat  they  give 
some  such  name  as  "  Bobby,"  or  "  Tommy,"  and  feed  and  pet 
him  until  he  becomes  so  saucy  that  he  can  hardly  be  kept  out  of 
the  dinner-pails. 

When  there  is  about  to  be  a  great  cave  in  a  mine,  the  rats 
give  the  miners  their  first  warning.  They  become  very  uneasy, 


UAT IV EL  COME   VI 'SI  TORS.  331 

and  are  seen  scampering  about  at  unwonted  times  and  in  unusual 
places.  The  rats  first  discover  that  the  mine  is  settling,  and 
they  start  out  in  search  of  a  place  of  safety.  It  is  supposed  that 
in  settling,  the  waste  rock  and  timbers  pinch  them  in  their  usual 
holes  and  haunts,  and  they  are  obliged  to  go  forth  in  search  of 
new  quarters,  in  order  to  escape  being  crushed  to  death.  A  fire 
in  a  mine  kills  them  by  thousands.  The  poisonous  gases  pene- 
trate to  every  part  of  the  level,  and  not  a  rat  is  left  alive.  Some- 
times after  a  fire  in  a  mine  they  are  gathered  up  on  the  floors  by 
bushels.  In  trying  to  jump  across  the  main  shaft,  a  rat  occa- 
sionally miscalculates  the  distance,  and  falls  to  the  bottom.  A 
rat  falling  a  thousand  feet  and  striking  a  miner  on  the  head  is 
sure  to  knock  him  down.  The  rat  is  killed,  of  course,  as  he 
generally  explodes  wherever  he  strikes.  Dogs  are  dangerous 
about  a  shaft.  Some  years  since,  at  Gold  Hill,  a  dog  fell  into  a 
shaft  across  which  he  attempted  to  jump,  and  killed  two  men  who 
were  at  work  at  its  bottom,  three  hundred  feet  below  the  surface. 

So  many  men  have  been  killed  in  all  of  the  principal  mines 
that  there  is  hardly  a  mine  on  the  lead  that  does  not  contain 
ghosts,  if  we  are  to  believe  what  the  miners  say. 

'Some  of  the  miners  are  very  superstitious,  while  others  are 
afraid  of  nothing  living  or  dead,  and  lay  plans  for  frightening 
those  known  to  be  timid.  At  times,  the  miner  who  is  passing 
through  unfrequented  drifts  in  the  old  upper  levels  is  almost 
paralyzed  by  the  sudden  breaking  forth  of  most  fearful  groans 
and  shrieks,  all  ending,  perhaps,  in  a  burst  of  fiendish  laughter. 
These  sounds  sometimes  follow  him  to  a  considerable  distance, 
coming  from  various  directions.  When  a  timid  man  hears  these 
ghostly  salutations,  he  loses  no  time  in  making  his  way  to  the 
settled  portions  of  the  mine. 

The  last  troublesome  ghost  was  one  that  haunted  the  yoo-foot 
level  of  the  Ophir  mine,  where  a  miner  was  killed  some  years 
ago.  The  bells  of  the  engineers  and  all  the  signal-bells  in  the 
Ophir  are  worked  by  electricity.  Although  there  was  no  one  at 
work  on  the  yoo-foot  level,  troublesome  signals  often  came  from 
there.  When  the  cage  arrived  at  that  point  the  engineer  would 
be  signalled  to  stop.  Although  confident  that  there  was  no  one 
at  the  level,  he  could  not  do  otherwise  than  obey  the  signal ; 
not  to  heed  it  might  cost  a  life. 
19 


332  CHASING  THE  GHOST. 

Next  would  come  a  signal  to  lower  to  the  level  below ;  then  a 
signal  to  hoist  to  the  top,  and  the  cage  which  had  thus  been 
travelling  about  would  come  to  the  surface  with  nothing  upon  it 
but  the  car-load  of  ore  with  which  it  started  from  the  bottom  of 
the  shaft. 

Sometimes  there  would  come  from  the  haunted  level  a  perfect 
storm  of  signals,  such  as  no  man  could  understand ;  then  for  a 
day  or  two  there  would  be  no  trouble.  A  man  who  was  set  to 
watch  at  the  level  was  frightened  nearly  out  of  his  wits  by  groans 
and  shrieks,  flashing  lights,  and  all  manner  of  fearful  things, 
and  swore  he  would  not  go  there  again  for  the  whole  Ophir 
mine.  He  even  went  so  far  as  to  declare  that  a  ghost  crept  up 
behind  him  and  threw  its  arms  about  him.  All  this  perplexed 
the  electrician  of  the  mine  not  a  little.  One  day,  therefore, 
when  signals  were  coming  from  the  haunted  level,  he  took  a 
dark  lantern  and  went  down  to  that  point.  He  had  hardly 
stepped  off  the  cage  before  he  was  saluted  with  an  awful  groan. 
Advancing  into  the  drift  a  blinding  light  flashed  into  his  eyes, 
and  he  heard  a  low,  gurgling  laugh  that  almost  froze  the  blood 
in  his*veins. 

He  had  gone  down  to  the  level,  however,  to  clear  up  the 
mystery  of  the  disturbances  at  that  point,  and  he  determined 
that  no  ghost  should  frighten  him  away. 

He  advanced  towards  where  he  had  heard  the  laugh,  and  was 
again  blinded  by  a  flash  of  light.  He  then  threw  the  light  of 
his  dark  lantern  before  him  along  the  drift,  but  it  was  empty. 
Far  away,  however,  he  heard  groans,  and  then  a  fearful  shriek. 

Pushing  on  and  flashing  his  light  this  way  and  that,  he  pur- 
sued the  ghost.  Time  and  again  the  light  was  flashed  in  his 
eyes,  and  the  low,  mocking  laugh  was  heard,  but  however  quickly 
he  might  turn  his  own  light  in  the  direction  whence  came  the 
sound,  he  could  see  nothing.  A  moment  after,  the  whole  mine 
would  seem  to  be  lighted  up  in  the  distance,  and  the  laugh 
would  be  heard  far  away. 

Did  he  attempt  to  advance,  the  light  flashed  in  his  face  from 
some  nook  near  at  hand,  and  a  shriek  was  uttered  almost  at  his 
side.  Becoming  desperate,  the  electrician  charged  about  at 
random  through  the  level,  flashing  his  lantern  in  all  directions. 
At  length  his  light  fell  upon  a  man  just  as  he  was  making  into 


CORNERED. 


335 


the  mouth  of  an  old  drift.  Keeping  his  light  upon  the  spot,  our 
electrician  rushed  forward,  and  pushing  into  the  drift  saw  his 
man  crouched  behind  some  timbers  at  the  further  end.  He  was 
cornered  at  last. 

•  Finding  that  he  was  caught,  the  fellow  rose  up  and  coolly 
said :  "  Well,  you  don't  scare  worth  a  cent !  "  In  his  hand  the 
man  held  the  bulls-eye  lantern  which  he  had  been  flashing  in 
the  face  of  the  electrician,  and  he  owned  to  having  a  confederate 
somewhere  on  the  level  who  was  similarly  equipped,  but  refused 
to  give  his  name. 

The  mysterious  signals  from  the  level  were  now  accounted 
for.  This  man  and  two  or  three  other  mischievous  fellows,  who 
were  the  only  men  employed  in  that  part  of  the  mine,  had  been 
ringing  themselves  up  and  down  between  the  almost  deserted 
levels,  and  had  been  frightening  out  of  their  wits  all  who  ven- 
tured near  the  haunted  yoo-foot  level.  Since  the  day  of  the 
electrician's  adventure  nothing  more  has  been  heard  of  the 
Ophir  ghost. 


CHAPTER  XLVI. 

EXTRACTING   SILVER   FROM   THE  ORE. 

HAVING  shown  the  reader  what  is  to  be  seen  in  the 
underground  regions  of  the  mines,  I  shall  now  proceed 
to  show  him  what  is  to  be  seen  in  a  quartz-mill,  ex- 
plaining the  use  of  the  machinery  and  various  processes  for 
the  extraction  of  the  silver  from  the  ore.    I  shall  begin  with 
the  ore  as  it  comes  from  the  mine,  and  follow  it  through  the 
reduction-works  until  it  makes  its  appearance  in  the  shape  of 
silver  bars,  stamped  with  their  value,  and  ready  for  the  mint 
or  the  market. 

The  mills  in  which  the  ores  of  the  Comstock  lode  are 
reduced,  are  all  built  on  the  same  general  plan.  When  the 
tourist  has  visited  and  examined  one  mill,  he  has  seen  them 
all,  both  great  and  small,  so  far  as  regards  the  processes  in 
use  for  the  reduction  of  the  ore.  Some  mills  are  more  con- 
veniently arranged  than  others,  however,  and  while  in  some 
machinery  is  used  which  is  somewhat  behind  the  age,  in 
others  will  be  found  in  operation  in  every  department  machi- 
nery of  the  latest  and  most  approved  pattern. 

The  model  mill  of  the  State,  arid  of  the  world,  for  the 
reduction  of  silver  ore,  is  the  new  6o-stamp  mill  of  the  Con- 
solidated Virginia  Mining  Company.  In  this  mill  is  to  be 
found  all  that  is  valuable  in  any  mill,  and  much  in  the  way  of 
machinery  that  can  be  seen  in  no  other  works  of  the  kind. 

In  describing  a  quartz-mill,  and  the  processes  used  in 
working  the  ores  of  the  Comstock  mines,  I  shall,  therefore, 
select  the  Consolidated  Virginia  reduction-works  as  those 
through  which  to  conduct  the  reader.  The  Consolidated 

336 


THE  RED  UCTION-  WORKS.  339 

Virginia  mill  stands  about  200  feet  north-east  of  the  company's 
main  shaft  and  hoisting-works.  The  ground  was  well  chosen, 
there  being  a  considerable  incline  toward  the  east,  which 
allowed  of  a  proper  and  regular  descent  from  the  battery- 
room  on  the  west  to  the  room  containing  the  agitators  on  the 
east,  so  that  the  course  of  everything  is  downward,  from  the 
time  of  dumping  the  ore  into  the  chutes  at  the  top  of  the  mill. 
The  ground  was  graded  out  in  regular  terraces  of  the  proper 
size  for  the  several  departments,  as  the  initial  step,  and  in 
their  proper  order  were  reared  upon  these,  foundations  for  the 
various  kinds  of  machinery,  and  the  whole  covered  by  one 
immense  building  or  series  of  buildings,  principally  under 
one  roof — a  vast  aggregation  of  buildings  and  machinery. 

The  battery-room,  with  ore-bin,  etc.,  is  situated  on  the  west 
side  of  the  mill,  and  is  100  feet  in  length  by  53  feet  in  width. 
Immediately  adjoining  this,  on  the  east,  on  a  terrace  a  few 
feet  lower,  is  the  amalgamating-room,  containing  the  pans, 
settlers,  and  other  amalgamating  apparatus.  This  room  is 
120  feet  in  length  by  92  feet  in  depth.  East  of  this,  and  a  few 
feet  lower  down,  is  the  room  containing  the  agitators  and 
other  apparatus  connected  therewith.  This  room  is  92  feet  in 
length  by  20  feet  in  width.  North  of  the  amalgamating-room 
is  the  engine-room,  containing  the  engine  and  boilers.  This 
room  is  92  feet  long  by  58  feet  in  width.  Near  the  mill  stands 
a  handsome  office,  20x30  feet  in  size ;  and  to  the  eastward,  and 
distant  from  the  mill  some  30  feet,  is  the  retort-house,  built  of 
brick,  and  20x60  feet  in  size. 

To  drive  the  whole  of  the  machinery  of  the  works  there  is  a 
compound  condensing-engine  of  6oo-horse  power.  This  en- 
gine has  two  cylinders,  the  first  24x48  inches,  and  the  second 
48x48  inches  in  size.  The  steam  is  admitted  to  the  first  or 
"initial  cylinder,"  where  it  is  cut  off  at  half  stroke.  It  then 
passes  into  the  second  or  "expansion  cylinder,"  which,  being 
twice  the  size  of  the  first  and  having  four  times  its  capacity  in 
cubical  contents,  gives  an  expansion  of  eight  bulks — twice  in 
the  first  cylinder,  and  four  times  in  the  second.  After  the 
steam  has  left  the  expansion  cylinder,  instead  of  exhausting 
in  the  open  air  it  exhausts  into  a  condenser,  where  it  gains  an 
additional  power  equal  to  the  atmospheric  pressure  at  the 


340  WORKING  THE  MACHINERY. 


altitude  of  Virginia.  The  main  shaft  from  this  engine  is  14 
inches  in  diameter,  and  weighs  15,000  pounds.  On  this  shaft 
is  a  fly-wheel  (which  is  also  a  band-wheel  and  carries  the 
large  belt  by  which  the  batteries  are  driven)  18  feet  in  diam- 
eter and  weighing  i6£  tons.  On  the  extreme  end  of  the  main 
driving  shaft  is  coupled  a  shaft  n  inches  in  diameter,  which 
extends  into  the  amalgamating-room  and  drives  the  pans  and 
settlers — indeed,  all  the  machinery  except  that  connected  with 
the  batteries.  The  whole  weight  of  the  engine  is  about  50 
tons,  and  it  stands  on  a  foundation  of  450  cubic  yards  of 
masonry,  laid  in  cement,  the  weight  of  which  is  over  600  tons. 
There  are  in  this  room  four  pair  of  boilers,  eight  in  all,  each 
of  which  is  54  inches  in  diameter,  and  16  feet  in  length.  All 
of  these  boilers  can  be  used  simultaneously,  or  each  pair  can 
be  run  separately — just  as  may  be  required.  From  the  floor 
of  the  engine-room  to  the  ridge  of  the  roof  the  distance  is  50 
feet.  The  west  side  of  this,  and  of  some  of  the  adjoining 
rooms,  is  formed  by  a  stone  wall  22  feet  in  height.  In  these 
walls  there  are  in  all,  4,000  perches  of  mason-work — all  trachyte 
rock.  The  smo.ke-stacks  of  the  boilers  are  four  in  number, 
and  each  is  42  inches  in  diameter  and  90  feet  in  height.  In 
this  room  are  two  large  steam-pumps  for  use  in  feeding  the 
boilers,  or  to  be  used  for  fighting  fire,  if  need  be ;  each  being 
supplied  with  hose  of  sufficient  length  to  reach  to  any  part 
of  the  building. 

About  28  cords  of  wood  are  used  per  day — 10,080  per 
annum.  This  wood  is  brought  to  the  mill  from  a  side-track 
of  the  Virginia  and  Truckee  Railroad,  on  a  truck  which  holds 
exactly  one  cord.  Thus  is  the  wood  measured  as  it  is  de- 
livered. The  truck  dumps  the  wood  into  a  chute,  which 
carries  it  down  into  the  boiler-room,  and  it  is  landed  just  in 
front  of  the  furnaces,  where  it  is  wanted. 

We  will  now  return  to  the  west  side  of  the  mill  and  ascend 
to  its  extreme  top,  even  above  the  roof.  Here,  above  the  roof, 
comes  in  a  large  car-track,  leading  directly  from  the  main  shaft 
of  the  hoisting-works  at  the  mine.  This  track  is  278  feet  in_ 
length,  and  is  housed  in  for  its  entire  length.  It  is  hand- 
somely finished  off,  contains  windows  its  whole  length,  is 
painted  a  light  brown  color,  and  strikingly  resembles  a  rope- 
walk. 


THE  BATTERIES.  341 


When  the  cages  bring  to  the  top  of  the  shaft  the  cars  loaded 
with  ore,  a  carman  is  standing  ready,  who  takes  the  car  from 
the  cage  and  pushes  it  before  him  over  an  iron  track  to  the 
chutes  which  lead  down  through  the  roof  of  the  mill  into  the 
huge  ore-bin  below.  This  car-track,  and  the  long  building 
covering  it,  are  supported  upon  a  strong  trestle-work  con- 
structed of  large  square  timbers,  and  rising  forty-four  feet 
above  the  surface  of  the  ground  in  the  highest  part.  To  keep 
the  stamps  supplied  with  ore  requires  one  car-load  to  be  sent 
out  from  the  shaft  every  five  minutes  during  the  day  and 
night.  Although  the  cars  were  at  first  pushed  out  over  the 
track  by  hand,  they  are  now  made  up  into  trains  of  ten,  and 
are  hauled  by  a  mule  from  the  hoisting-works  to  the  mill. 

The  ore,  on  being  dumped  into  the  chutes  at  the  top  of  the 
mill,  descends  to  the  centre,  from  each  side.  The  chutes  have 
in  their  bottoms  what  are  called  "  grizzlies" — iron  bars  placed 
three  inches  apart  so  as  to  form  a  screen — through  which  the 
fine  ore  drops  into  the  bin  below,  while  the  coarse  rock  rolls 
on  down  and  is  dumped  on  a  floor  above  the  ore-bin,  and 
about  its  centre,  where  stands  the  rock-breaker. 

The  rock-breaker  is  a  heavy  piece  of  machinery,  which  in 
appearance,  and  the  principle  upon  which  it  works,  not  a 
little  resembles  a  huge  nut-cracker  or  lemon-squeezer.  It  is 
the  same  kind  of  machine  that  is  used  in  some  cities  for  chew- 
ing up  rock  for  macadamizing  streets,  and  which  is  known  as 
a  "  masticator." 

The  coarse  rock  being  crushed  in  the  rock-breaker  is  carried 
into  the  ore-bin  by  a  chute.  In  the  main  chutes  above  are 
what  are  called  distributing  chutes,  which  are  chutes  that 
carry  the  descending  ore  far  away  from  the  centre  of  the  bin. 
But  for  this  arrangement,  all  of  the  ore  would  fall  in  the 
middle  of  the  bin,  which  is  no  feet  in  length. 

In  the  battery-room  are  ranged  in  a  row,  north  and  south 
through  the  building,  six  batteries  of  ten  stamps  each,  or  sixty 
stamps  in  all.  Each  stamp  weighs  800  pounds.  Each  set  of 
ten  stamps  works  independently  of  each  other  set,  and  can  be 
stopped  and  started  at  will  by  simply  moving  a  sort  of  brake 
or  clutch.  The  whole  of  the  stamps  and  the  apparatus  con- 
nected therewith,  are  driven  by  a  belt  from  the  main  fly  and 


342  PREPARING  THE  ORE. 

band-wheel  (mentioned  above),  which  belt  is  24  inches  in 
width  and  160  feet  in  length.  This  runs  the  counter-shaft 
in  front  of  the  batteries,  and  from  the  pullies  on  this  counter- 
shaft there  are  belts  14  inches  in  width  and  60  feet  in  length? 
which  run  each  battery  of  ten  stamps.  The  main  belt,  which 
drives  the  whole  of  this  machinery,  runs  at  the  rate  of  3,600 
feet  per  minute. 

From  the  ore-bin  the  ore  descends  into  the  Tulloch  self- 
feeders,  one  of  which  machines  is  required  for  every  five 
stamps,  or  twelve  in  all.  These  do  the  whole  work  of  feeding. 
The  ore  is  not  touched  by  anyone  after  it  falls  into  the  bin. 
Two  men  are  able  to  keep  watch  over  all  the  feeders  supply- 
ing ore  to  the  whole  sixty  stamps.  The  feeder  is  the  invention 
of  James  Tulloch,  of  California,  and  is  a  very  valuable  labor- 
saving  apparatus.  The  feeders  are  self-regulating,  the  motion 
of  the  stamps  in  dropping,  operating  them.  When  there  is 
too  much  ore  in  the  battery,  the  tappet  of  the  stamp  does  not 
fall  sufficiently  low  to  strike  the  end  of  the  rod  attached  to 
the  feed-table,  and  no  more  rock  enters  the  battery  for  a  time; 
but  as  the  rock  is  worked  out,  the  feeder  again  begins  to 
operate.  In  most  of  the  mills  the  ore  is  still  fed  into  the  bat- 
teries, with  shovels,  by  men  known  as  "  feeders."  When  the 
feeding  is  done  by  hand,  the  amount  of  ore  reduced  in  a  given 
time,  depends  much  on  the  men  who  do  the  work.  They 
must  put  under  the  stamps  all  the  ore  they  can  crush,  and  no 
more.  This  must  be  done  constantly  throughout  the  twenty- 
hours  for  weeks  and  months. 

In  the  Consolidated  Virginia  mill,  the  mortars — the  huge 
iron  boxes  in  which  the  stamps  work — do  not  discharge  the 
pulp  or  pulverized  ore  in  front,  as  is  usual,  but  at  one  side. 
This  gives  free  access  to  the  mortars  in  front  for  the  purpose 
of  putting  in  new  shoes  and  dies.  The  "  shoes  "  are  the  heavy 
blocks  of  iron  or  steel  fastened  to  the  lower  end  of  the  stamp. 
It  is  the  shoes  that  fall  upon  and  crush  the  ore  when  the 
stamp  is  dropped  by  the  cam  which  raises  it.  The  "  dies  "  are 
much  the  same  in  shape  and  size  as  the  shoes,  and  are  fitte^ 
into  the  bottom  of  the  mortar  in  such  a  position  that  one  is 
exactly  under  the  point  where  the  shoe  of  each  stamp  strikes. 
Thus  it  is  between  the  "shoes"  and  "dies  "that  the  rock  is 
pulverized. 


FIRST  QUAKTZ    MILL  IN  NEVADA. 


QUARTZ-MILL—AMALGAMATING  KOOM. 


THE  AMALGAM  A  TING-ROOM.  34.3 

A  small  stream  of  water  is  constantly  running  into  the 
battery  among  the  ore,  which  water,  being  strongly  churned 
and  agitated  takes  up  and  floats  all  of  the  finer  particles  of 
ore.  Across  the  face  of  the  mortar,  just  in  front  of  the  dies, 
are  the  screens,  made  of  the  best  Russian  sheet-iron,  punched 
full  of  small  holes.  Through  these  holes  the  water  and  the 
finely  powdered  ore  pass  into  a  sluice  or  trough  running  to 
the  settling-tanks  in  the  amalgamating-room,  where  the  ore, 
now  in  the  shape  of  fine  sand,  is  deposited,  to  be  finally 
shovelled  out  and  placed  in  the  amalgamating-pans.  The 
finer  the  screens  the  smaller  the  quantity  of  ore  that  can  be 
put  through  a  battery  in  a  given  time. 

The  roar  of  Niagara  is  as  a  faint  murmur  compared  with 
the  deafening  noise  of  sixty  stamps,  all  in  full  operation.  In 
the  battery-room,  and  indeed  throughout  the  mill,  the  noise  is 
such  that 'it  is  almost  impossible  to  converse.  Eve/y  word 
must  be  shouted  into  your  ear  at  the  top  of  the  speaker's 
voice,  and  in  a  tone  that  would  be  audible  at  the  distance  of  a 
mile  in  the  open  air.  There  is  little  talking  done  in  the 
battery-room ;  except  when  ladies  visit  the  works ;  then  you 
can  see  that  their  lips  continue  to  move,  and  the  presumption 
is  that  they  are  talking  right  straight  along. 

Just  in  front  of  the  battery-room,  but  having  its  floor  some 
feet  lower,  is  the  amalgamating  or  pan-room,  92x120  feet  in 
size.  Into  this  room  comes  the  pulp  as  it  runs  from  the  bat- 
teries. The  pans  stand  in  two  long  lines,  running  east  and 
west,  and  back  of  the  lines  of  pans  are  the  settling-tanks, 
while  in  front  of  them  are  ranged  the  "settlers/'  a  large  kind 
of  pan  into  which  the  pulp  passes  from  the  pans  proper — the 
amalgamating-pans.  On  each  side  of  the  building,  over  the 
settling-tanks,  are  sluices  bringing  the  pulp  (mingled  with 
water)  from  the  batteries.  Each  sluice  brings  the  pulp  from 
thirty  stamps,  and  supplies  one  row  of  settling-tanks — there 
being  spouts  leading  from  the  sluice  to  each  tank.  There  are 
seventeen  of  these  settling-tanks,  and  when  the  pulp  has 
settled  in  them  till  it  is  of  the  consistency  of  thick  mortar,  it 
is  shovelled  out  upon  a  platform  which  runs  alongside  the 
row  of  amalgamating-pans.  There  are  sixteen  pans  in  each 
row — thirty -two  in  all — and  each  pan  is  five  and  one-half  feet 


34:4  TWO  PROCESSES. 


in  diameter,  and  holds  a  charge  of  3,000  pounds  of  this  pulp. 
In  the  bottom  of  the  pans  are  thick  plates  of  cast-iron 
called  "dies,"  while  revolving  upon  these  are  the  mullers, 
which  are  furnished  with  other  thick  plates  of  iron  called 
"shoes."  It  amounts  to  much  the  same  thing  as  the  shoes 
and  dies  in  the  batteries,  except  that  in  the  latter  the  ore  is 
pulverized  by  percussion,  while  in  the  pans  it  is  done  by  a 
rotary  motion — by  grinding. 

When  the  charge  of  pulp  has  been  shovelled  into  an  amal- 
gamating-pan,  a  certain  quantity  of  water  is  added  to  thin  it 
to  the  proper  consistency  for  working,  when  the  mullers  are 
set  in  motion,  and  the  work  of  grinding  the  ore  in  the  pan 
begins.  The  pans  have  covers  and  double  bottoms,  and  when 
they  are  at  work,  steam  is  not  only  let  into  the  pulp,  but  also 
underneath,  between  the  two  bottoms. 

After,  the  pulp  has  been  thus  heated  and  ground  for  two 
and  a  half  hours,  there  is  placed  in  the  pan  300  pounds  of 
quicksilver,  and  it  is  run  two  and  a  half  hours  longer — five 
hours  in  all.  Besides  the  quicksilver,  there  is  put  into  the 
pan  with  the  charge  a  certain  quantity  of  salt  and  sulphate  of 
copper;  also,  when  thought  necessary,  soda  and  some  other 
chemicals  are  added. 

The  foundation  of  this  method  of  working  silver-ore  is  the 
old  Mexican  patio  process.  When  Americans  came  to  engage 
in  the  working  of  silver  ores,  upon  the  discovery  of  the  Com- 
stock  lode,  they  found  the  Mexican  plan  of  working  too  slow, 
and  they  began  to  study,  in  order  to  make  improvements  in 
it.  In  the  Mexican  patio  process  the  pulverized  ore  is  made 
up  into  a  thick  mortar  on  a  floor  of  planks  or  stone  (which  is 
the  patio),  when  salt  and  sulphate  of  copper  are  added  and 
mixed  in,  and  the  pile  of  mortar  is  built  up  in  the  shape  of  a 
mound,  and  allowed  to  heat  and  sweat. 

After  a  proper  time  has  elapsed  the  mound  is  pulled  down 
and  spread  about,  when  quicksilver  is  sprinkled  upon  and 
well  worked  into  the  mass,  and  it  is  again  made  up  into  a 
mound-shaped  pile,  to  heat.  This  pulling  down  and  building^ 
up,  spreading  about,  and  airing,  is  several  times  repeated,  and 
the  whole  operation  lasts  a  number  of  days,  when  finally  the 
mass  of  mortar  is  washed  and  the  quicksilver  and  amalgam 


LEFT  IN  THE  STRAINING-BAGS.  34.5 

secured.  By  placing  the  pulp,  or  mortar,  in  large  iron  pans, 
heated  by  steam  and  stirred  by  machinery,  we  see  that  the 
time  of  bringing  the  ore  to  the  metallic  state,  is  reduced  from 
five  or  six  days  to  as  many  hours.  The  principle  involved  in 
the  two  processes — pan  and  patio — is  essentially  the  same. 

On  a  platform  below  the  amalgamating-pans,  stand  eight 
settlers,  one  for  each  pair  of  pans.  The  settlers  are  each  nine 
feet  in  diameter,  and  five  or  six  feet  in  depth.  Into  the  set- 
tlers, at  the  end  of  five  hours,  the  contents  of  the  pans — quick- 
silver and  all — are  drawn.  The  pulp,  quicksilver,  and  the 
amalgam  (silver  and  quicksilver  combined),  remain  in  the 
settler  about  two  hours,  during  which  time  the  quicksilver 
and  amalgam  are  drawn  off  through  a  pipe,  at  the  bottom  of 
the  settler,  and  run  into  strainers,  one  of  which  stands  in  front 
of  each  settler,  and  all  of  which  are  provided  with  iron  covers 
that  are  kept  locked. 

The  silver  separates  from  the  ore  while  in  the  amalgamating- 
pan,  being  changed  from  the  chloride  and  sulphuret  to  the 
metallic  form,  by  the  action  of  the  salt  and  sulphate  of  copper. 
As  soon  as  it  has  assumed  the  metallic  form,  it  unites  or 
amalgamates  with  the  quicksilver,  but  both  in  the  pan  and  in 
the  settler  it  is  still  mingled  with  the  earthy  matter  of  the  ore 
from  which  it  was  produced. 

It  is  first  seen  freed  from  this  gross  and  earthy  matter — 
pulverized  rock,  principally  quartz — when  it  passes  from  the 
bottom  of  the  settler  through  the  iron  pipe  into  the  top  of  the 
strainer.  Then  it  is  mingled  with  nothing  more  base  than 
quicksilver. 

The  strainers  are  bags  of  heavy  canvas  suspended  in  strong 
boxes,  covered,  as  has  been  mentioned,  with  iron  lids,  some- 
what funnel-shaped,  and  perforated  with  holes  through  which 
the  quicksilver  and  amalgam  may  pass  to  the  straining-bags,. 
— where  we  will  leave  them  for  the  present. 


CHAPTER  XLVII. 

ASSAYS   OF   THE   SILVER  BULLION. 

THE  water  and    pulp  discharged   from  the  settlers  runs 
through  sluices  to  the  lowest  part  of  the  building,  where, 
some  eight  or  ten  feet  below  the  level  of  the  floor  of  the 
amalgamating-room,  stand  the  agitators,  four  in  number.    These 
are  huge  tubs,  having  in  them  revolving  rakes  or  "  stirrers,"  and 
here   is   caught   whatever   valuable   matter   may   have   passed 
through  the  settlers. 

Twice  in  twenty-four  hours,  the  heavy  matter  collected  in  the 
bottom  of  the  agitators  is  cleaned  out  and  placed  in  four  small 
pans  and  two  settlers  that  stand  in  the  same  room  to  be  re-worked. 
Finally,  the  pulp  leaves  the  agitators  and,  carried  by  a  quantity 
of  water  to  float  it,  passes  out  of  the  mill  in  a  trough  or  flume 
through  which  it  flows  eastward  to  a  considerable  dfstance  from 
the  mill,  when  it  reaches  what  are  called  the  "  blanket  sluices," 
the  working  of  which  will  be  described  further  on.  In  speaking 
of  the  pans  and  settlers,  I  have  described  but  one  row  or  set. 
The  two  rows,  one  on  the  north  and  the  other  on  the  south  side 
of  the  large  room,  are  exactly  alike.  Each  row  of  pans  has  its 
row  of  settling  tanks,  settlers  and  amalgam  strainers.  To  these 
strainers,  in  which  we  left  the  amalgam  and  quicksilver,  a  few 
minutes  since,  we  now  return. 

While  in  the  strainers  a  great  quantity  of  the  superfluous 
quicksilver  mingled  with  the  amalgam  drains  off,  and  flowing 
through  pipes,  is  conducted  to  a  large  receiving-tank  under  the 
floor  of  the  room.  After  it  has  thus  drained  till  no  more  quick- 
silver will  flow  from  it,  the  amalgam  is  removed  from  the  ordin- 
ary strainers  and  is  taken  to  the  hydraulic  strainer. 

346 


HOW  QUICKSILVER   VANISHES.  347 

It  is  now  a  pasty  mass  of  fine  particles  of  silver,  held  together 
by  quicksilver,  and*  when  pressed  between  the  fingers  gives  out  a 
peculiar  squeaking  sound.  Although  we  may  be  unable  to  start 
a  single  globule  of  quicksilver  from  a  lump  of  this  amalgam  by 
pressing  it  beneath  our  fingers,  yet  it  is  far  from  being  as  dry  as 
it  may  be  made  by  pressure.  In  this  state  it  is  placed  in  the 
hydraulic  strainer,  a  heavy  cylindrical  cast-iron  vessel,  a  good 
deal  resembling  a  mortar— such  as  bombs  are  fired  from.  Over 
the  "  muzzle  "  of  the  "  mortar  "  is  fastened,  by  means  of  bolts 
and  screws,  a  lid  of  iron  through  which  enters  an  iron  pipe. 
This  pipe  is  then  connected  with  a  water-pipe,  and  water  under 
several  hundred  feet  of  pressure  is  turned  into  the  strainer. 
The  pressure  exerted  upon  the  amalgam  in  this  strainer  amounts 
to  150  pounds  to  the  square  inch. 

When  taken  out  the  amalgam  has  changed  color  and  looks 
much  less  bright  than  before ;  one  would  think  that  but  little 
quicksilver  now  remained  in  it,  yet  three-fourths  of  the  mass  is 
still  quicksilver.  Though  strained  and  pressed  as  thoroughly  as 
possible  by  ordinary  methods,  amalgam  yields  but  one-sixth  or 
one-seventh  in  silver  bullion  when  retorted,  whereas  by  the 
hydraulic  strainer  the  yield  is  one-fourth. 

The  quicksilver  pressed  out  by  the  hydraulic  strainer  is  also 
conducted  to  the  large  receiving  tank  under  the  floor  of  the 
room.  From  this  tank  it  is  pumped  up  by  powerful  patent 
machinery — a  pump  having  valves  which  are  india-rubber  balls 
[Toy  balls  of  india-rubber,  such  as  children  play  with  may  be 
used  when  those  furnished  with  the  pump  are  not  at  hand] — and 
goes  to  the  distributing  tanks.  There  are  two  of  these  tanks, 
one  standing  above  each  row  of  pans.  Each  distributing  tank 
feeds  eight  quicksilver  bowls,  and  each  bowl  supplies  two  pans, 
all  by  means  of  pipes.  Thus,  it  will  be  seen,  the  quicksilver  is 
in  constant  circulation.  It  passes  through  the  pans,  settlers,  and 
strainers  to  the  main  receiving  tank,  from  which  it  is  pumped  up 
into  the  distibuting  tanks,  from  these  flows  into  the  quicksilver 
bowls,  thence  passing  into  the  pans  again.  So  it  goes  on  con- 
stantly circulating  until  it  is  worn  out  and  lost. 

The  loss  in  quicksilver  by  grinding  the  "life  "'out  of  it  in  the 
pans  is  very  great.  In  the  eight  mills  of  the  Consolidated 
Virginia  Mining  Company — mostly  mills  of  from  ten  to  twenty 


348  CHARGING  THE  RETORTS. 

stamps  each — the  loss  in  quicksilver  amounts  to  between  $60,000 
and  $70,000  per  month.  Much  of  this  loss  is  occasioned  by 
grinding  quicksilver  in  the  pans  five  hours,  when  it  should  only 
be  subjected  to  this  destructive  process  two  and  a  half  hours. 
The  intention  is  to  have  quicksilver  in  the  pans  but  the  length 
of  time  last  mentioned,  but  in  drawing  off  their  contents  into  the 
settlers  a  considerable  quantity  remains  behind  in  the  interstices 
of  the  dies  in  the  bottom  of  the  pans,  and  is  thus  subjected  to 
the  two  and  a  half  hours  of  grinding  given  the  first  charge  of 
pulp,  previous  to  the  putting  in  of  the  usual  dose  of  300  pounds 
of  quicksilver.  Many  millmen  and  amalgamators  are  experi- 
menting for  the  purpose  of,  if  possible,  devising  means  by  which 
this  extra  grinding  of  quicksilver  may  be  obviated. 

Through  the  whole  length  of  the  amalgamating-room,  between 
the  two  rows  of  strainers,  a  car-track  is  laid  upon  the  floor  and 
on  this  runs  the  amalgam  car,  made  wholly  of  iron,  and  capable 
of  holding  two  tons  of  amalgam.  When  told  that  this  car,  so 
insignificant  in  size,  holds  two  tons,  we  get  some  idea  of  the 
great  weight  of  the  amalgam.  The  car  takes  the  amalgam  from 
the  hydraulic  strainer  and  conveys  it  to  the  retort-house,  stand- 
ing about  30  feet  from  the  main  mill  building. 

The  floor  of  the  amalgamating-room  is  eight  or  ten  feet  above 
the  level  of  that  of  the  retort-house,  and  when  the  car,  with  its 
load,  has  reached  the  end  of  the  car-track  in  the  amalgamating 
room,  it  is  run  upon  a  hydraulic  elevator  by  means  of  which  it  is 
quickly  lowered  to  the  level  of  the  track  running  to  the  retorts. 

The  retort-house  is  built  of  brick  and  is  24  x  60  feet  in  size. 
It  contains  six  retorts,  capable  of  retorting  five  tons  of  amalgam 
per  day,  but  the  amount  retorted  daily  is  but  from  two  to  two 
and  a  half  tons.  The  retorts  are  cast-iron  cylinders  about  six 
feet  in  length  and  eighteen  inches  in  diameter,  placed  horizon- 
tally in  brickwork,  each  having  under  it  a  small  furnace.  The 
row  of  retorts  closely  resembles  a  row  of  little  steam  boilers. 

In  charging  the  retorts  they  are  about  half  filled  with  the 
amalgam,  which  looks  more  like  grey  mud  than  silver  or  any 
other  metal.  It  is  very  cheap-looking  stuff.  Although  one  can- 
not see  a  single  globule  of  quicksilver  in  it,  yet  it  is  about 
three-fourths  quicksilver.  You  can  squeeze  no  quicksilver  out. 
.  Upon  the  application  of  gradual  but  intense  heat,  the  mercury 


LADLIXG  OUT  THE  MOLTEN  SILVER.  351 

separates  rapidly  from  the  silver,  which  from  the  retort-house 
is  taken  to"  the  assay-office.  All  mining  companies  do  not  do 
their  own  melting  and  assaying.  It  is  only  a  few  of  the  leading 
companies  that  can  afford  to  have  assay-offices  of  their  own. 

The  assay-office  of  the  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  Com- 
pany is  a  large  and  handsomely  constructed  building  standing 
a  short  distance  south  of  the  main  hoisting  works.  It  is  divided 
into  a  number  of  rooms,  in  which  are  the  several  departments  of 
the  business.  In  the  melting-room  are  six  furnaces  ranged  in  a 
row  in  which  are  placed  the  melting-pots,  which  are  made  of 
plumbago.  These  pots  are  capable  of  holding  300  pounds  of 
silver  each,  but  the  quantity  melted  is  generally  from  220  to  230 
pounds,  sufficient  to  make  two  large  bars  or  "  bricks,"  as  they 
are  commonly  called. 

After  the" silver  is  thoroughly  melted  it  is  well  stirred  up,  and 
the  dross  which  rises  to  the  surface  is  skimmed  off.  The  pots 
are  then  lifted  out  of  the  furnace,  and  the  molten  silver  is 
poured  into  iron  moulds  which  form  the  bars,  weighing  a  little 
over  100  pounds  each. 

When  the  pots  of  molten  silver  are  lifted  out  of  the  furnace,  a 
small  quantity  of  the  liquid  mass  is  taken  from  the  surface  in  a 
little  ladle. ' 

The  silver  thus  taken  out  is  thrown  into  water,  when  it  scatters, 
and  spreads  out  in  a  thousand  fantastic  shapes.  Some  of  these 
sprays  of  silver  resemble  butterflies,  flowers,  or  the  leaves  of 
plants — all  are  very  bright  and  beautiful.  They  are  called 
"  granulations  "  and  it  is  from  these  particles  of  silver  that  the 
assays  are  made  by  which  the  value  of  the  bar  is  known. 

As  the  molten  silver  is  poured  from  the  pot,  in  moulding  the 
second  and  last  bar,  the  little  ladle  is  dipped  quite  down  to  the 
bottom  of  the  pot  and  a  small  quantity  of  the  liquid  metal 
is  taken  out  and  thrown  into  cold  water,  as  was  the  first.  The 
resulting  granulations  are  assayed,  and  the  two  assays  must  agree 
exactly,  or  all  is  to  be  done  over  again  before  the  bars  can  be 
stamped  with  their  value  in  silver  and  gold,  All  of  the  Corn- 
stock  bullion  contains  a  considerable  percentage  of  gold.  This 
percentage  varies  in  different  mines.  Thus  in  the  Belcher  bullion 
it  is  often  as  high  as  50  per  cent.,  while  in  the  Consolidated 
Virginia  bullion  it  is  as  low  as  10  per  cent. 


352  HOW  A SSA  YS  ARE  MADE. 


On  an  average  there  are  melted,  moulded  into  bars  and  assayed 
at  the  Consolidated  Virginia  assay-office  from  500  to  600  pounds 
of  bullion  per  day. 

In  making  an  assay  of  the  granulated  silver,  a  French  gramme 
in  weight  is  taken.  This  is  wrapped  up  in  a  thin  sheet  of  pure 
lead — lead  which  contains  no  silver— when  it  is  put  into  a  cupel, 
made  of  bone  ashes,  and  the  whole  is  then  placed  in  a  muffle- 
furnace.  In  the  great  heat  of  this  furnace  both  lead  and  silver 
are  soon  liquified,  when  the  lead  is  absorbed  by  the  cupel, 
carrying  with  it  whatever  base  metal  there  may  be  in  the  gramme 
of  bullion.  The  "  button  "  left  at  the  end  of  this  process  of 
cupellation  is  weighed,  when  is  ascertained  the  weight  in  fine 
metal — gold  and  silver. 

The  bullion  is  now  hammered  out  till  it  forms  a  thin  sheet, 
when  it  is  placed  in  an  annealed  glass  flask,  called  a  matrass, 
and  strong  nitric  acid  is  poured  over  it.  The  flask  is  then 
placed  in  a  sand-bath  (a  sort  of  oven,  the  bottom  of  which  is 
covered  to  the  depth  of  an  inch  or  more  with  hot  sand)  and  the 
flattened  button  is  boiled  in  the  acid  until  all  the  silver  in  it  is 
dissolved.  The  gold  which  remains  in  the  bottom  of  the  flask 
in  the  form  of  a  fine  powder,  is  collected  in  an  unglazed  porce- 
lain crucible.  The  crucible  is  placed  in  a  warm  place  until  the 
gold  has  dried ;  when  it  is  put  into  a  furnace  and  annealed — 
heated  until  the  particles  unite  and  form  what  is  called  "  matte." 

It  is  then  removed  from  the  crucible  and  carefully  weighed. 
The  weight  of  this  matter  shows  the  gold  contained  in  the  button, 
and  the  loss  in  the  weight — that  which  was  disolved  out  of  the 
original  button  by  the  action  of  the  nitric  acid — represents  the 
silver.  The  bars  being  next  accurately  weighed,  their  value  is 
determined  from  the  amount  of  gold  and  silver  found  in  the 
sample  of  one  gramme  taken  from  the  silver  of  which  the  bars 
were  moulded.  The  calculations  here  required  are  much  facili- 
tated by  the  use  of  very  comprehensive  tables  of  values  for  all 
degrees  of  fineness  of  silver  and  gold — a  species  of  logarithms. 
Thus,  for  instance,  when  silver  is  900  fine,  an  ounce  of  such 
silver  is  worth  $1,16,36,  and  when  gold  is  900  fine  an  ounce  of 
it  is  worth  $i8,6o£.  This  is  seen  at  a  glance  by  referring  to  the 
tables ;  and  the  same  is  the  case  no  matter  what  the  degree  of 
fineness  of  the  metal  may  be. 


RESULTS.  353 


The  scales  used  in  assaying  are  wonderfully  delicate  and 
sensitive.  The  smaller  ones  will  weigh  a  piece  of  hair  only 
an  inch  in  length,  from  the  human  head.  There  is  a  separate 
room  in  which  the  weighing  is  done  and  the  calculations  made. 
All  in  this  room  is  as  neat  and  clean  as  in  the  finest  parlor.  In 
another  room  are  the  muffle-furnace  and  sand-bath,  and  in  still 
another  the  furnace  where  the  assays  are  made,  also  a  still  for 
distilling  water.  In  ore  assays,  200  grains  of  finely  powered  ore 
are  placed  in  a  small  earthen  crucible;  a  proper  quantity  of 
flux  is  added,  and  the  whole  is  then  placed  in  the  furnace  and 
melted.  After  the  mass  has  remained  in  the  molten  state  a. 
sufficient  length  of  time,  the  crucible  is  taken  out  and  allowed 
to  cool.  When  cold  it  is  broken  by  a  blow  with  a  hammer,  and 
the  button  deposited  by  the  ore  is  found  at  its  bottom.  This 
button  is  then  assayed  in  the  same  way  as  the  granulations  taken 
from  the  melting-pot,  and  from  the  result  the  value  per  ton  of 
the  ore  is  calculated. 

In  the  Consolidated  Virginia  assay-office  from  sixty  to  eighty 
assays  of  ore,  tailings,  and  slimes  are  daily  made.  The  finished 
bars  of  silver  have  stamped  upon  them  their  weight,  fineness  of 
gold  and  silver,  value  in  gold  and  in  silver,  and  the  total  value 
of  the  bars.  They  are  then  ready  to  be  sent  to  one  of  the 
United  States'  Mints  to  be  coined,  or  to  be  shipped  to  Europe,. 
China,  or  Japan,  and  sold.  The  total  cost  of  the  Consolidated 
Virginia  reduction  works  was  $350,000. 


20 


CHAPTER  XLVIII. 

SALOON   BIRDS. 

AS  the  reader  has  been  kept  for  some  time  in  the  "  lower 
levels,"  and  amid  the  roar  of  the  machinery  of  the  mills, 
I   shall  now  give  a  few  chapters  illustrative  of  life  in 
Virginia  City,  and  along  the  Comstock  lode. 

In  Virginia  City  are  found  many  odd,  curious,  and  reckless 
characters.  It  would  be  strange,  indeed,  if  such  were  not  the 
case,  in  a  city  having  a  population  of  over  twenty  thousand  souls, 
composed  of  adventurers  from  every  land,  all  attracted  thither 
by  the  great  richness  of  the  mines  and  the  abundance  of  money. 
Hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  being  paid  out  on  the  first  of 
every  month  to  the  miners  and  the  workmen  employed  in  the 
many  mills,  there  have  been  attracted  to  the  Comstock  range 
hundreds  of  gamblers  of  all  grades,  and  men  of  all  kinds  who 
live  by  their  wits.  There  is  always  a  small  army  of  men  who 
haunt  the  saloons  and  gambling  rooms,  and  by  begging  a  good 
deal  and  stealing  a  little,  and  playing  all  manner  of  tricks  and 
dodges,  manage  to  pick  up  a  precarious  subsistence.  There  are 
in  Virginia  City  about  one  hundred  saloons,  all  of  which  have 
their  customers.  The  majority  of  these  saloons  are  what  are 
called  "  bit  houses;  "  that  is,  drinks  of  all  kinds  and  cigars  are 
one  bit— twelve  and  one-half  cents.  The  dime,  however,  passes 
as  a  ll  bit "  in  all  of  these  houses. 

The  money  in  circulation  is  wholly  gold  and  silver  coin,  and 
the  smallest  coin  in  use  is  the  bit,  ten-cent  piece — sometimes 
spoken  of  as  a  "  short  bit,"  as  not  being  twelve  and  one-half 
cents,  the  "  long  bit."  There  being  no  smaller  change  in  use 
than  the  dime,  the  bit  passes  for  the  half  of  twenty-five  cents. 

354 


BIG  EATERS.  355 


Thus,  whenever  a  customer  throws  down  a  quarter  of  a  dollar  in 
payment  for  a  drink  or  a  cigar,  he  gets  back  a  dime,  and  so  has 
paid  fifteen  cents  for  his  "  nip  "  or  smoke.  The  new  twenty- 
cent  pieces,  of  which  Senator  Jones,  of  Nevada,  is  the  father, 
will,  however,  cure  this  little  ill.  In  the  "  two-bit,"  or  twenty- 
five  cent  saloons,  everything  is  twenty-five  cents,  even  the  same 
drinks  that  are  sold  in  the  bit  houses  for  ten  cents ;  as  lager 
beer,  soda  water,  lemonade,  cider,  and  the  like. 

There  is  really  but  one  hotel — kept  after  the  plan  of  hotels  in 
other  places — in  Virginia  City.  The  people  of  the  town  eat  at 
restaurants  and  have  their  rooms  at  lodging-houses.  It  is  on  the 
European  plan,  except  that  a  restaurant  is  seldom  found  in  the 
same  building  as  a  lodging-house.  Those  who  live  in  lodging- 
houses  patronize  that  restaurant  which  best  suits  them.  Restaur- 
ants and  lodging-houses  are,  therefore,  even  more  numerous  in 
the  town  than  saloons. 

The  grand  army  of.  men  who  live  by  their  wits  are  always  at 
war  with  the  restaurant  keepers.  Of  late,  however,  the  latter 
have  formed  an  association  for  their  mutual  protection,  and 
furnish  each  other  lists  of  all  swindling  customers,  which  makes 
it  no  easy  matter  for  one  of  the  "  dead  beats  "  to  get  a  "  square 
meal,"  unless  he  first  "  puts  up  "  his  coin.  These  fellows  can- 
not now  rove  from  house  to  house  as  in  former  times. 

Some  years  ago  a  restaurant  keeper  had  a  number  of  these 
customers,  who  were  eating  him  out  of  house  and  home.  One 
day  he  seriously  remonstrated  with  one  of  his  patrons.  He  told 
him  that  unless  he  and  others  like  him  paid  up,  the  house  ^must 
close. 

Said  the  restaurant  man :  "  Here,  now,  it  has  been  two  weeks 
since  I  paid  my  meat  bill.  If  I  don't  pay  up  this  week  the 
butcher  will  shut  down  on  me,  and  I  can  get  no  more  meat. 
Don't  you  see,  I  shall  be  obliged  to  close  my  house  !  " 

"  O,  no  !  "  said  the  customer,  "  don't  close  your  house.  Keep 
her  open.  We'll  all  stay  by  you.  If  you  can't  get  any  meat, 
we'll  play  you  a  string  on  vegetables !  '* 

v  Even  some  such  customers  as  pay  are  a  terror  to  the  restaur- 
ant keeper.  When  the  check-guerrilla  is  eating  his  semi-weekly 
square  meal,  the  landlord  paces  the  room  wringing  his  hands — 
eyes  red,  face  flushed,  brows  corrugated,  general  aspect  venomous 


356  RECOGNIZING  MURPH  V. 

In  his  walk — as  steak  after  steak  disappears — he  eyes  his  cus- 
tomer in  a  malignant,  yet  helpless  manner.  In  case  of  fifteen 
or  twenty  such  customers  arriving  in  one  day,  the  restaurant 
keeper  generally  goes  out  into  his  back  yard  and  cuts  his 
throat. 

Pat  Murphy  had  the  name  of  being  the  biggest  eater  on  the 
Comstock  range.  He  was  a  very  good  sort  of  man,  and  tried 
his  best  not  to  make  his  appetite  conspicuous,  but  it  was  a 
thing  that  could  not  be  concealed.  In  order  not  to  be  too  hard 
on  any  one  man,  Murphy  was  in  the  habit  of  changing  his 
boarding  place  quite  frequently.  On  one  occasion  a  new  res- 
taurant was  opened,  and  nearly  every  morning  the  patrons  of 
the  place  would  ask  the  landlord  if  Pat  Murphy  had  not  yet 
come  to  board  with  him.  The  landlord  would  say  that  he  had 
seen  no  man  of  that  name.  Finding  that  the  "  sports "  who- 
were  boarding  with  him  continued  daily  to  ask  if  he  had  yet 
seen  Murphy,  the  landlord  began  to  feel  that  he  should  like  to 
know  something  about  him.  He  asked  what  kind  of  man 
Murphy  was,  and  how  he  would  be  able  to  recognize  him  in 
case  he  should  come  to  the  restaurant. 

"Never  mind  about  how  he  looks,"  said  the  sports,  "you  will 
know  him  when  he  comes." 

One  morning  a  tall,  gaunt,  middle-aged  man  came  edging 
into  the  restaurant,  and  meekly  took  a  seat.  The  landlord 
rather  liked  the  appearance  of  the  new  customer,  and  at  once 
went  to  take  his  order. 

"  Landlord,"  said  the  man,  "  let  me  have  a  porther-house 
steak  and  onions,  some  liver  and  bacon  on  the  side,  six  fried 
eggs,  a  bit  of  ham,  a  Jarman  pancake,  some  fried  pertaties,  a 
cup  of  coffee,  and  a  couple  of  doughnuts,  and — if  ye  have  them 
— a  couple  of  waffles."  When  the  sports  came  in  to  breakfast, 
the  landlord  said :  "  He  has  been  here — I've  seen  Murphy,  the 
man  who  eats." 

Many  of  the  emigrants  from  the  older  states  arrive  in  Washoe 
with  exaggerated  notions  and  with  eyes  and  ears  open  for  strange 
things  of  all  kinds.  Being  well  aware  of  this,  a  Comstocker 
who  dropped  in  at  a  chop-house  where  about  a  dozen  new- 
comers had  just  settled  in  a  flock,  at  two  or  three  adjoining 
tables,  concluded  to  have  some  fun  with  them.  Seating  himself 


A  NICE  LITTLE  SUPPER.  357 

near  them,  the  Comstocker  roared  :     "  Waiter,  how  long  does  a 
man  have  to  sit  here  before  you  come  to  take  his  order  ?  " 

"  All  right,  sir !  "  said  the  alert  waiter,  who  was  well  acquainted 
with  the  customer,  and  saw  that  he  was  up  to  some  kind  of  mis- 
chief. "  All  right !  What  will  you  have,  sir  ?  " 

The  emigrants  all  turned  to  take  a  look  at  the  man  of  sten- 
torian voice,  who  spoke  so  authoritatively. 

Straightening  himself  up,  and  speaking  even  louder  than 
before,  the  Comstocker  cried  :  "  Give  me  a  baked  horned  toad, 
two  broiled  lizards  on  toast,  with  tarantula  sauce — stewed  rattle- 
snake and  poached  scorpions  on  the  side  !  " 

.Without  the  slightest  hesitation  or  the  least  sign  of  astonish- 
ment, the  waiter  called  out  to  the  Chinese  cooks  in  the  kitchen : 
"  Baked  horned  toad ;  two  briled  lizards  on  toast,  tarantula 
sauce;  stewed  rattlesnake  and  poached  scorpions.  Very  nice 
and  well  done,  for  Mr.  Terry !  " 

There  was  then  a  great  buzzing  among  the  emigrants  as  they 
laid  their  heads  together,  and  many  curious  side  glances  were 
shot  at  that  most  incorrigible  of  jokers,  Bill  Terry.  Even  after 
Bill's  breakfast  had  been  placed  before  him — his  real  order 
having  been  given  on  the  sly — the  emigrants  were  unable  to 
make  out  what  he  was  eating,  though  they  nearly  twisted  their 
necks  out  of  joint  with  glancing  over  their  shoulders  at  his 
table. 

The  white  sage  which  grows  in  great  abundance  throughout 
Nevada,  is  not  only  useful  as  a  food  for  cattle,  but  from  it  has 
been  manufactured  a  hair  restorative — a  wash  for  making  hair 
grow  on  bald  heads.  One  day  Bill  Terry  happened  to  be  seated 
opposite  a  stranger  at  a  table  in  a  restaurant,  when  the  stranger 
— who  was  a  side-whiskered,  lisping  man  who  showed  a  good 
deal  of  the  dandy  in  his  dress — attracted  the  attention  of 
"  William  "  by  opening  a  conversation  as  follows  : — 

STRANGER. — "  Deah  me  !  this  is  disgusting !  (Holding  up  his 
knife  and  gazing  fixedly  at  its  point.)  This  is  either  the  second 
or  the  third  hair  that  I  have  found  in  this  buttah !  " 

BILL  TERRY — "You've  not  been  here  long,  I  judge?  " 

STRANGER — "  No  sir  ;  I  arrived  here  yesterday  morning." 

BILL  TERRY — "  I  thought  so,  otherwise  you  would  not  complain 
of  hairs  in  the  butter." 


358  WHA  T  HE  DID   WITH  HIS  GUN. 

STRANGER — "  Not  complain  of  hairs  in  the  butter?  You  sup- 
pwise  me,  sir !  How  could  I  do  otherwise  ?  " 

BILL  TERRY — "Those  hairs,  sir,  are  just  as  natural  to  Washoe 
butter  as  butter  is  a  natural  product  of  milk.  They  are  just  as 
good  and  just  as  clean  as  the  butter." 

STRANGER — "  Impossible  !  " 

BILL  TERRY — "  Not  at  all,  sir.  All  our  butter  comes  from  the 
great  valley  of  our  State  where  flourishes  that  most  nutritious 
and  truly  wonderful  plant,  the  white  sage.  On  this  white  sage 
our  cattle  feed  and  fatten.  The  plant  has  many  virtues.  It  is 
of  an  oleaginous  nature  and  is  good  in  lung  diseases,  and  from  it 
is  also  manufactured  a  most  wonderful  and  very  popular  hair 
restorative." 

STRANGER — "  Ah,  yes;  I've  heard  something  of  the  kind." 

BILL  TERRY — "  Well,  then,  sir,  in  a  country  where  all  the  cows 
feed  on  the  white  sage,  do  you  think  it  likely  that  the  butter  will 
be  bald-headed." 

Promontory  is  a  new  place  out  on  the  Central  Pacific  Rail- 
road. Out  there  they  have  no  "  Hotel  and  Restaurant-keepers' 
Mutual  Protection  Association,"  as  they  have  in  Virginia  City. 
The  place  is  too  small  and  scattering  for  the  advanced  ideas 
that  rule  in  the  more  metropolitan  towns.  A  Comstocker  went 
out  to  Promontory  to  prospect  and  look  around  for  a  time.  He 
stopped  at  the  principal  hotel,  which  stood  at  the  edge  of  the 
town.  Our  Comstocker  liked  the  looks  of  things.  The  land- 
lord seemed  a  very  agreeable  and  friendly  sort  of  man,  and  he 
thought  he  would  stop  and  board  with  him  a  while. 

When  dinner  was  ready  the  landlord  took  a  double-barrelled 
shot-gun  from  behind  the  bar,  and,  stepping  out  in  front  of  his 
house,  fired  off  one  of  the  barrels. 

The  Comstocker,  who  had  followed  him  to  the  door  to  see 
what  was  up,  said  to  him  :  "  What  did  you  do  that  for  ?  " 

"  To  call  my  boarders  to  dinner,"  said  the  landlord. 

"  I  see,"  said  the  Comstocker,  "  but  why  don't  you  fire  off  both 
barrels  ?  " 

"  Well,"  said  the  landlord,  "  you  see  I  keep  the  other  to  collect 
with." 

Having  but  a  few  "  short  bits  "  in  his  pocket  our  Comstocker, 
after  getting  his  dinner,  concluded  to  shoulder  his  carpet-bag 


"A  DEVIL  OF  A    TIME."  359 

and  jog  along.  Speaking  of  short  bits  :  A  "  hoodlum  "  went 
into  a  cigar  store  in  Virginia  City  one  day,  aud  after  getting  a 
"bit  "  cigar,  laid  a  dime  on  the  counter  and  picked  up  a  twenty- 
five  cent  piec.e  which  he  saw  lying  there,  saying  as  he  walked  off: 
"  Just  the  change !  " 

The  astonished  shop-keeper  gazed  at  the  lone  bit,  then  at  his 
box  of  cigars,  and  then  in  the  direction  taken  by  the  young 
sharper,  .^.t  last  he  said  :  "  Veil,  now,  how  dat  vas  ?  Dat  vas 
make  der  right  schange,  sure ;  but  it  look  to  me  like  it  vas  make 
emde  wrong  vay  somehow.  Veil,  de  next  time  what  dare  comes 
a  bargain  like  dese,  I  make  der  schange  mineselfs.  Ven  effery 
fool  what  come  to  der  store  make  schange,  it  soon  schpiles  der 
piziness !  " 

The  saloon-keepers  as  well  as  the  keepers  of  restaurants  have 
some  very  amiable  gentlemen  to  deal  with  occasionally,  but 
more  frequently  such  as  are  "on  the  beat." 

One  evening  a  tall  wild-looking  fellow  rushed  into  a  first-class 
saloon  apparently  in  a  terrible  state  of  excitement.  Throwing 
his  hat  on  the  counter  he  said  to  the  bar-keeper :  "  There'll  be 
the  biggest  row  here  in  about  a  minute  that  ever  you  saw !  Give 
me  a  drink  quick  !  " 

The  bar-keeper  set  out  the  bottle,  and  while  the  fellow  was 
helping*  himself,  looked  under  the  bar  to  see  that  his  six-shooter 
was  all  right  and  his  club  handy. 

Leaving  his  hat  on  the  bar,  the  fellow  ran  to  the  door,  looked 
out,  then  rushed  back  and  said :  "  Yes ;  in  less  than  half  a 
minute  there'll  be  a  devil  of  a  time  here  !  Give  me  another  drink, 
quick !  "  And  seizing  the  bottle  he  helped  himself  to  another 
rousing  horn.  He  then  took  up  his  hat  and  was  coolly  marching 
away,  when  the  bar-keeper  called  after  him :  "  See  here  you 
fellow  there  !  What's  all  this  about  a  row  ?  Do  you  know  you 
haven't  paid  me  for  those  drinks !  " 

"  There  you  go  !  "  said  the  fellow. 

"  Well,  and  there  you  don't  go  until  you  pay  for  your  drinks. 
Come  back  here  or  I'll  give  you  a  taste  of  my  club  !  " 

"  There  you  go  again  !  Didn't  I  say  there 'd  be  a  fearful  row 
here  in  about  a  minute  ?  I  knew  it ;  and  there  you  go !  " 

The  bar-keeper  now  saw  the  point  and  said :  "  Look  here, 
you  can  come  back  here  and  take  another  drink  if  you  like,  but 


360  "A  NICE  AGREEABLE  GENTLEMAN." 

I  wish  it  distinctly  understood,  my  good  fellow,  that  this  is  to 
be  the  last  "  row  "  you  ever  raise  in  this  house  !  " 

A  man  one  day  sauntered  into  a  two-bit  saloon  and  called  for 
a  drink  of  whiskey.  The  proprietor  of  the  place  was  behind  the 
bar  and  set  out  the  Bourbon  bottle.  When  the  man  had  drank 
he  threw  a  ten-cent  piece  on  the  counter  and  started  off. 
v  "This  is  a  two-bit  house,  sir,"  said  the  proprietor,  in  a  tone 
which  showed  that  he  felt  some  pride  in  the  establishment. 

"Ah!"  said  the  customer.  "Two-bit  house,  eh?  Well,  I 
thought  so  when  I  first  came  in,  but  after  I  had  tasted  your 
whiskey  I  concluded  it  was  a  bit  house." 

Some  of  the  customers  of  the  saloon-keepers  are  not  only 
fellows  of  infinite  jest,  but  are  also  men  of  such  an  agreeable 
disposition  that  it  is  pleasant  to  have  them  around. 

"  Do  you  know  Mr.  Popper  ? "  asked  a  saloon-keeper  of  one  of 
his  customers. 

"I've  heard  of  him,"  said  the  customer,  "but  I  don't  know 
that  I  ever  met  him." 

"  No  ;  "  said  the  saloon  man.  "  Well,  you  ought  to  make  his 
acquaintance.  He's  a  nice  agreeable  gentleman.  I  never  saw 
him  until  night  before  last  when  he  came  in  here  about  12  o'clock 
and  took  a  drink.  He  is  a  man  who  makes  himself  at  home 
with  you  at  once.  Why  he  had  hardly  been  in  here  five  minutes 
before  he  drew  out  his  six-shooter  and  began  shooting  holes 
through  the  pictures,  the  lamp,  and  other  little  notions  about  the 
place,  just  as  familiarly  as  though  he  and  I  had  been  boys 
together.  Nothing  cold  and  distant  about  him !  He's  a  charm- 
ing fellow  ! — charming !  " 

There  is  nothing  at  which  these  agreeable  gentlemen  are  more 
likely  to  take  a  shot,  than  a  large  and  costly  mirror.  A  mirror 
is  generally  the  first  thing  that  attracts  their  attention  when  they 
are  inclined  to  be  sociable  and  good-natured,  though  a  lamp, 
suspended  in  the  middle  of  a  room,  very  frequently  draws  their 
first  fire.  %  Sometimes  two  or  three  marksmen  take  a  hand  in  the 
sport.  Then  it's  right  jolly. 

Probably  as  preparatory  to  a  more  public  performance,  half  <* 
dozen  men  went  one  night  to  a  pistol  gallery  to  practice.  To 
snuff  a  candle  with  a  pistol  or  rifle  has  always  been  a  great  feat 
among  crack  shots.  These  men  were  not  only  going  to  snuff  the 


HOW  THEY  SNUFFED   THE  CANDLE.  361 

candlet  but  each  man  in  turn  was  to  hold  the  candle  while  the 
other  snuffed  it.  At  the  first  fire  the  man  who  held  the  candle 
got  a  bullet  through  his  left  hand.  Although  the  wound  was  of  a 
very  painful  character,  he  insisted  on  having  his  shot.  He  got  it, 
and  put  a  bullet  through  his  friend's  arm  just  below  the  elbow. 
After  this  the  party  did  not  feel  that  enthusiasm  for  candle- 
snuffing  which  previously  animated  their  bosoms.  They  con- 
cluded that  they  were  not  candle-snuffers. 


CHAPTER  XLIX. 

SOME   VERY  QUEER  CUSTOMERS. 

OUT  on  the  Divide,  in  the  extreme  southern  part  of  Vir- 
ginia City,  they  do  much  better  shooting  than  that 
mentioned  in  the  last  chapter — also,  much  worse.  Out 
there,  one  morning,  a  man  fired  six  shots  at  his  brother-in- 
law  and  missed  him  every  time,  though  the  practice  all  took 
place  within  the  bounds  of  a  small  door-yard.  During  the 
afternoon  of  the  same  day  some  men  at  a  saloon  were  dis- 
cussing the  morning's  shooting,  and  all  agreed  that  it  was 
scandalous — was  a  discredit  to  their  end  of  the  town,  and  to 
Washoe.  That  to  shoot  at  a  man  six  times,  and  not  hit  him, 
was  shameful.  After  awhile,  with  these  things  occurring,  it 
would  go  abroad  that  a  Washoe  man  could  not  hit  the  side  of 
a  barn. 

After  much  more  talk  about  the  disgraceful  affair  of  the 
morning,  a  man  from  Pioche — a  lively  camp  in  the  eastern 
part  of  Nevada  (they  kill  a  man  there  every  week  or  two) 
bantered  a  Comstocker,  whom  he  knew  to  be  a  fine  shot  with 
a  pistol,  to  go  out  into  the  back  yard  with  him  and  do  some 
shooting,  just  to  show  the  "boys"  how  it  should  be  done. 

In  the  saloon — which  also  was  a  grocery-store — was  a  box 
of  eggs,  and  the  Piocher  proposed,  that  they  each  shoot 
two  eggs  off  the  bare  head  of  the  other,  at  the  distance  of  ten 
paces,  the  one  missing,  to  treat  the  crowd.  The  Comstocker 
was  determined  not  to  be  bluffed  by  a  man  from  the  other 
end  of  the  State,  so  to  the  back  yard  all  hands  adjourned. 
Each  man  used  his  own  six-shooter.  The  Comstocker  first 
"  busted "  his  egg  on  the  top  of  the  Piocher's  head,  and  the 
feat  was  loudly  applauded  by  all  present. 

362 


THE    TRIAL  OF   SKILL. 


A    TRIFLING  ACCIDENT.  363 

It  was  then  the  Piocher's  time  to  shoot,  and  an  egg  was 
produced  to  be  placed  upon  the  head  of  the  Comstocker,  but 
when  he  removed  his  hat,  there  was  a  general  laugh,  as  the 
top  of  his  head  was  as  smooth  as  a  billiard-ball. 

For  full  five  minutes  all  hands  tried  to  make  an.  egg  stand 
on  the  smooth  pate  of  the  Comstocker.  It  couldn't  be  done. 
The  Piocher  then  taunted  the  Comstocker  with  having  gone 
into  the  arrangement  knowing  that  he  was  safe.  The  latter 
told  him  to  set  up  his  egg,  and  it  was  all  right — he  was  there. 
The  Pioche  man  stood  contemplating  the  bald  pate  before 
him  for  a  time,  then  turned,  and  went  into  the  saloon.  A 
moment  after  he  came  out  with  a  small  handful  of  flour, 
which  he  dabbed  upon  the  bald  head  of  the  Comstocker,  and 
then  triumphantly  planted  in  it  his  egg,  fell  back  ten  paces, 
and  knocked  it  off.  The  Comstock  man  then  told  him  to  set 
up  his  second  egg  and  shoot  at  it,  as  he  didn't  want  to  have 
his  head  chalked  twice  during  the  same  game.  This  was 
done,  and  the  wreck  of  the  second  egg  streamed  over  the 
Comstocker's  pate. 

The  Piocher  now  stood  out  with  his  last  egg  on  his  head. 
The  Comstocker  raised  his  pistol  and  fired.  The  Piocher 
bounded  a  yard  into  the  air,  and  the  egg  rolled  unscathed 
from  his  head. 

"  I've  lost ! "  cried  the  Comstocker.  "  Let  all  come  up  and 
drink.  By  a  slip  of  the  finger,  I've  put  half  the  width  of  my 
bullet  through  the  top  of  his  left  ear ! "  and  so  it  proved  upon 
measurement. 

All  Washoe  men,  however,  do  not  stand  fire  so  well  as  this 
pair  of  egg-shooters.  On  one  occasion  a  "  sport,"  of  hercu- 
lean frame,  and  wearing  a  huge  black  beard  that  gave  him  a 
most  ferocious  appearance,  cheated  a  miner  out  of  four  or  five 
hundred  dollars  in  a  game  of  draw-poker.  As  he  made  his 
last  losing,  the  miner  saw  the  cheat,  and  demanded  the  return 
of  all  the  money  he  had  lost.  The  big  gambler  laughed  in 
his  face.  The  miner,  who  was  quite  a  small  man,  left  the 
place  wearing  an  ugly  look.  Some  of  those  present,  who 
knew  the  miner,  told  the  big  sport  that  he  had  better  leave,  as 
his  man  had  gone  off  to  "  heel  himself,"  and  there  would  soon 
be  trouble. 


364:  BLAZER  AND  HIS  FRIENDS. 

But  the  big  man  was  not  alarmed — he  was  not  going  to  be 
frightened  away.  He  sat  in  a  chair  in  a  rear  room  of  the 
saloon,  near  an  open  window,  his  head  thrown  back,  and  his 
legs  cocked  up.  He  didn't  care  how  many  weapons  the 
miner  might  bring. 

"Why,  gentlemen,"  said  he,  "you  don't  know  me! — you 
don't  know  who  I  am  !  I'm  the  Wild  Boar  of  Tehama !  The 
click  of  a  six-shooter  is  music  to  my  ear,  and  a  bowie-knife  is 
my  looking-glass — "  Here  he  happened  to  look  toward  the 
door,  and  saw  the  miner  entering  the  door  with  a  shot-gun, 
when  he  said:  "But  a  shot-gun  lets  me  out!"  and  he  went 
through  the  window  behind  him,  head  first. 

A  very  different  sort  of  man  from  the  "  Wild  Boar  of  Teha- 
ma" was  Blazer.  Blazer  was  a  man  who  never  felt  himself 
at  peace  except  "when  at  war."  He  would  leave  his  dinner 
any  day,  if  he  thought  he  could  find  a  fight.  When  unable  to 
<l  mix"  in  a  "  muss"  of  some  kind,  he  was  the  most  miserable 
dog  alive.  A  week  without  a  battle,  and  he  began  to  think 
there  was  nothing  in  the  world  worth  living  for. 

Although  Blazer  seldom  won  more  than  one  fight  out  of 
ten,  it  was  all  the  same  to  him.  He  rather  enjoyed  a  good 
pommelling. 

One  night  some  of  Blazer's  friends — because  they  were  his 
enemies — happened  to  be  passing  through  a  part  of  Virginia 
City  called  the  "  Barbary  Coast,"  on  account  of  its  being  the 
roughest  and  worst  place  in  the  town — the  "  Five  Points  "  of 
the  place.  As  Blazer's  friends  were  passing  through  this 
region  of  blood  and  robberies,  their  attention  was  attracted 
to  a  "  shebang  "  near  at  hand,  by  a  terrible  uproar  within  its 
doors.  There  was  a  smashing  of  glass,  a  crashing  of  chairs, 
bottles,  and  tumblers ;  fierce  yells,  bitter  curses,  and,  in  short, 
a  fearful  commotion. 

Thinking  one  of  the  voices  heard  above  the  din  had  a 
familiar  sound,  Blazer's  friends  entered  the  place.  As  they 
pushed  in  at  the  door  they  saw  Blazer  surrounded  by  half  a 
dozen  "  Coasters,"  who  were  giving  it  to  him  right  and  lef*, 
Blazer's  nose  was  flattened;  one  eye  closed;  his  upper  lip  laid 
open,  his  face  covered  with  blood,  and  his  clothes  nearly  torn 
off  his  back.  A  clip  under  the  ear  sent  him  to  "grass,"  when 


A  LITTLE  MISUNDERSTANDING.  3(55 

those'nearest  him  began  jumping  upon  him  and  kicking  him 
in  the  ribs.  His  friends  rushed  to  his  rescue.  The  breath 
was  completely  knocked  and  kicked  out  of  poor  Blazer,  and 
he  lay  stretched  senseless  on  the  floor. 

Some  water  dashed  in  his  face  revived  him.  Recognizing 
his  friends,  he  smiled  as  amiably  as  was  possible,  with  his 
distorted  upper  lip,  and  huskily  whispered:  "Boys,  it's  gor- 
geous! I've  struck  a  perfect  paradise  !  " 

Somewhat  of  the  same  pattern  as  Blazer  was  the  youth 
encountered  on  this  same  "Barbary  Coast  "one  night  by  a 
policeman  whose  beat  was  among  the  "dives"  in  that  region. 

"  Where  was  that  row  just  now  ?  "  said  the  policeman.  The 
question  was  addressed  to  a  wall-eyed  young  hoodlum,  who, 
with  hands  thrust  nearly  to  his  knees  in  his  breeches  pockets, 
lounged  against  a  lamp-post. 

"  Ro-o-ow  ?  "  listlessly  drawled  the  short-haired  youth.  "  I 
hain't  seen  nuthin'  of  no  row." 

"You  hain't?  "  said  the  policeman,  eyeing  the  young  gen- 
tleman over. 

"  N-o  ;  I  hain't  !  "  reiterated  the  fellow,  with  a  sneering 
Bowery  drawl.  "  Do  yer  sup-pose  I'd  be  a  loafin'  here  if  ther* 
was  any  row  a-goin  ?  Not  much  !  " 

"  I  was  told  down  street,"  said  the  policeman,  "  that  there 
was  a  regular  row  in  one  of  the  shebangs  up  this  way.  Now 
I  want  to  know  where  it  was  —  do  you  understand  ?  " 

"Wa-all,  I  dunno,  but  I  guess  maybe  ther'  mout  a  bin  a 
little  misunderstandin'  or  sumpthin'  o'  that  sort  in  at  Broncho 
Sail's  saloon.  'Bout  a  minit  or  so  ago  I  seed  Wasatch  Sam 
roll  out  'er  thare  and  seed  him  spit  out  some  feller's  ear,  as  he 
went  'long  by  here  ;  but  I  don't  reckon  there's  bin  any  per- 


same  policeman  one  night  heard  a  sound  of  scuffling 
in  a  Barbary  Coast  "  dive  "  and  ran  in  to  see  was  what  going 
on.  As  he  entered  the  place,  he  saw  two  men  struggling 
upon  the  floor.  The  uppermost  man  arose  from  the  prostrate 
and  bleeding  form  of  his  antagonist  as  the  policeman  ap- 
proached, and  said  :  "  I'm  a  quiet  man,  a  man  who  wouldn't 
harm  a  fly,  but  when  I'm  crowded  too  far,  I  will  remonstrate  !  " 
whereupon  he  spat  out  the  nose  of  the  man  who  was  lying  on 
the  floor. 


366  CO ULDN* T  DRINK  ALONE. 

Curious  characters  are  frequently  encountered  in  towns  of 
the  silver-mines — queer  customers  from  all  parts  of  the  world. 
A  few  drinks  generally  bring  out  the  peculiarities  of  these 
men.  One  day  an  odd-looking,  wiry  old  chap,  evidently 
from  some  ranch  in  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains,  and  appar- 
ently a  man  rich  in  flocks  and  herds,  made  his  way  to  the  bar 
of  one  of  the  first-class  two-bit  saloons  of  Virginia  City.  His 
"  keg "  was  evidently  "  full "  to  overflowing,  yet  he  was  still 
athirst.  Cocking  one  eye  upon  the  bar-keeper  and  the  other 
on  the  array  of  bottles  before  him,  he  thrust  his  right  hand 
deep  into  his  breeches'  pocket  and  there  stirred  up  a  stunning 
jingle  of  coin.  Turning  to  a  gentleman  standing  near,  the 
little  old  man  said :  lt  Stranger,  excuse  me,  but  will  yer  jine 
in  a  drink  ?  " 

"  Please  excuse  me,  sir,"  said  the  gentleman  addressed,  "  I've 
just  drank." 

" Stand  another,  can't  yer?" 

"  No ;  I'm  much  obliged.     I  don't  wish  to  drink." 

Turning  to  another  gentleman,  the  old  fellow  said :  "  Take 
a  drink,  sir — with  me?" 

"  No,  sir;  I  thank  you,  I've  just  been  to  dinner,"  and  this 
man  turned  and  walked  away. 

The  little  old  man  of  the  mountains  looked  annoyed  and 
irritated,  and  turning  from  the  bar,  he  walked  across  the  saloon 
to  where  three  or  four  gentlemen  were  conversing  together : 
"  Gentlemen,"  said  he,  "  you  must  excuse  me,  I'm  a  stranger 
here,  but  I  never  like  to  drink  alone.  Now,  will  you  oblige 
me  by  all  comin'  up  and  takin'  a  drink  at  my  expense?  I'm 
one  of  your  sociable  kind,  and  never  like  to  go  in  a  drove  by 
myself." 

Thinking  the  old  fellow  had  drank  about  as  much  as  was 
good  for  him,  all  declined  the  proffered  treat.  This  exasper- 
ated the  old  chap.  Jerking  his  cap  off  his  head  and  slapping 
it  against  his  thigh,  he  broke  loose  with :  u  Well,  now,  this 
beats  my  time  !  Not  a  man  in  this  room  that  will  drink  with 
me !  Damme !  I'll  go  forth  into  the  street  and  bring  in  the  * 
rabble !  I'll  be  like  that  old  rancher  down  in  the  Valley  of 
Galilee,  that  the  Bible  tells  of.  He  was  one  of  my  kind. 
When  he  had  a  frolic  he  wanted  to  see  things  whiz ! " 


"I'LL  BRING  IN  THE  RABBLE?  £67 

"  Which  of  the  old  patriarchs  was  that  ?  "  asked  a  gentleman 
present,  who  thought  it  might  be  worth  while  to  draw  the 
old  fellow  out. 

"  I'm  not  much  of  a  biblist,"  said  the  old  man,  "  but  I  mean 
that  jolly  old  cock  that  lived  somewhere  down  in  Galilee  or 
Nazareth.  The  old  gentleman,  you  know,  that  gave  the  big 
blow-out  when  his  oldest  gal  got  married.  You  recollect  he 
killed  a  lot  of  oxen,  and  sheep,  and  calves,  and  goats,  and  had 
a  tearin'  barbacue,  invitin'  all  the  neighbors  for  miles  round. 
But  devil  a  one  came  near  the  house.  All  too  durned  high- 
toned  !  Then  what  does  that  old  chap  do  but  git  up  on  his 
ear  and  swear  the  thing  shall  be  a  success.  So  he  sends  his 
hired  man  out  to  gather  up  all  of  the  old  bummers  and  dead- 
beats,  the  lame,  halt,  and  blind,  sayin  :  *  Bring  'em  all  in,  and 
we'll  have  a  regular  tear — the  big  blow-out  of  the  season ! ' 

"Then  the  hungry  and  thirsty  old  bummers  and  gutter- 
snipes all  came  charging  in  from  the  back  alleys,  and  tumb- 
lin'  up  from  the  lumber-yards,  and  they  piled  in  and  they 
made  it  hot  for  that  lunch,  and  whiskey,  and  lager-beer,  and 
they  fiddled  and  danced  till  they  all  got  blind  drunk  and 
broke  up  in  a  row.  But  the  gal  had  a  stavin'  lively  weddin* 
after  all ! 

"  Now  that's  the  kind  of  man  I  am.  Ef  you  gentlemen  won't 
drink  with  me,  damme,  I'll  go  out  and  bring  in  the  rabble  and 
we'll  eat  up  all  the  free-lunch,  drink  ourselves  disorderly,  and 
have  a  reg'lar  weddin'  feast  right  hyar ! " 

This  little  oration  had  the  desired  effect.  All  in  the  room 
shook  hands  with  the  old  chap  and  took  a  drink  with  him, 
when  he  exultantly  exclaimed,  bringing  his  fist  down  upon 
the  counter,  as  he  emptied  his  glass:  "Damme,  you  don't 
know  Old  Sol  Winters  down  hyar;  but  he's  a  pretty  big 
Injun  when  he's  at  home,  up  in  Orion  Valley ! " 

Another  curious  old  'coon  was  "  Old  Taggart."  Old  Tag- 
gart  is  dead.  We  planted  him  under  the  sod  in  1874.  Where 
the  soul  of  Old  Taggart  has  gone  to,  nobody  knows.  Old 
Taggart  was  a  good  sort  of  man,  but  had  his  "ways."  Old 
Taggart  didn't  fear  death.  As  he  lay  on  his  death-bed,  he  was 
conscious,  calm,  and  serene  to  the  last.  Said  he  toward  the 
close : 


368  THE  DEACON  SENT  FOR. 

"  During  these  many  years  I  have  thought  it  all  ever,  and  I 
am  ready  to  take  the  chances." 

Being  what  is  called  a  "  pious  "  woman,  Old  Taggart's  wife 
was  a  good  deal  disturbed  by  the  thought  of  seeing  her  hus- 
band die  without  having  "  experienced  religion."  She  wor- 
ried the  old  man  a  good  deal  toward  the  last  on  this  account. 

Old  Taggart  said:  "Wife,  I'm  as  sorry  for  all  the  bad 
things  I  have  done  during  my  life,  and  as  much  ashamed  of 
all  the  mean  things,  as  any  man  could  be." 

Still  the  old  lady  wanted  to  see  him  "  experience  a  change 
of  heart."  So  she  sent  for  Deacon  Dudley  to  come  and  talk 
to  the  old  man.  The  deacon  came,  and,  seating  himself  by 
the  bedside,  turned  to  the  sick  man  and  told  him  about  the 
wonders  and  the  glories  of  heaven.  He  told  him  all  about 
the  New  Jerusalem,  where  the  streets  are  paved  with  gold, 
and  where  angels  "touch  the  soft  lyre  and  tune  the  vocal 
lay."  He  then  asked  Old  Taggart  if  he  didn't  think  he'd  like 
to  go  up  there. 

"No;"  said  Old  Taggart,  "I  don't  think  I  should  feel  at 
home  in  the  kind  of  place  you  tell  about." 

"  But,  my  dear  friend,"  said  the  Deacon,  "  you  are  at  the 
point  of  death — you  should  not  talk  in  this  way  about  heaven !" 

"Well,  Deacon,  I'll  jist  die  and  trust  to  the  Almighty.  I'll 
jist  settle  down  wherever  he  puts  me.  I  don't  know  nothin* 
about  the  lay  of  the  land  in  'tother  world  myself,  but  I'll 
chance  Him." 

"I'm  surprised,  my  good  friend,  to  hear  that  you  don't 
want  to  be  one  of  that  heavenly  band  that  sit  before  the 
throne,  playing  on  golden  harps,  and  singing  praises  forever 
and  forever ! " 

"Me  play  on  a  harp,  Deacon?"  said  Old  Taggart,  smiling 
iFaintly. 

"Yes;  upon  the  wondrous  golden  harp!"  briskly  replied 
the  Deacon. 

"There,"  said  Old  Taggart,  doggedly,  "I  don't  want  to  go 
to  that  part  of  heaven.  The  Lord  will  give  me  a  place  out  in* 
some  of  the  back  settlements,  like.  He'll  find  a  place  for  me, 
I'll  be  bound!" 

"It's  wicked  to  talk  as  you  are  doing,"  said  the  Deacon. 


RESURRECTION!  369 


"  You  "have  the  worst  ideas  about  heaven  of  any  man  I  ever 
saw !  " 

"  Can't  help  it,  Deacon,"  said  Old  Taggart,  "  its  all  nonsense 
to  talk  about  me  playin*  a  harp.  I  tell  you  plainly,  Deacon, 
that  I  don't  want  to  go  among  the  musicians  up  there.  It 
wouldn't  suit  me!  " 

"  This  is  absolutely  sinful !  "  said  the  Deacon. 

"Can't  help  it,"  said  the  old  man,  "can't  help  it!  It's  no 
use  of  talkin';  I'll  die  my  own  way,  and  trust  to  the  Almighty.. 
I've  a  notion  that  when  Old  Taggart  comes  to  Him,  He  will 
make  him  comfortable  somewheres  up  there  in  the  kingdom." 

Here  Old  Taggart  gave  a  gasp  or  two,  and  was  dead.  He 
has  probably  found  a  place  "  up  there." 

Then  there  was  Old  Daniels,  a  queer  old  fellow  who  lived 
at  Gold  Hill.  Old  Daniels  would  sometimes  get  so  drunk 
that  he  didn't  know  whether  he  was  dead  or  alive.  Very  late 
one  night  some  wags  found  Old  Daniels  lying  in  an  alley  so 
much  intoxicated  that  they  at  first  thought  he  was  dead.  They 
got  a  hand-barrow  and  carried  him  out  to  the  graveyard. 
They  there  found  the  grave  of  a  Chinaman  that  had  been 
opened  in  order  that  the  bones  of  the  defunct  might  be  sent 
back  to  China.  The  old  shattered  coffin  of  the  Chinaman 
still  lay  beside  the  open .  grave,  and  alongside  of  the  coffin 
they  laid  Old  Daniels. 

The  wags  then  secreted  themselves  near  the  spot  in  order 
to  see  how  the  old  fellow  would  act  when  he  came  to  his 
senses,  for  he  was  sleeping  like  a  log.  They  were  obliged  to 
wait  a  long  time — till  very  weary  of  it — but  about  daylight, 
when  the  air  began  to  grow  cold,  Old  Daniels  began  to  toss 
and  tumble  uneasily,  and  presently  was  fully  awake.  He  arose 
to  a  sitting  posture  and  began  a  deliberate  survey  of  his  sur- 
roundings— the  empty  coffin  by  his  side,  the  open  grave,  the 
tombstones  all  round. 

"  The  day  of  resurrection !  "  said  he  solemnly,  then  took 
another  survey  of  the  graveyard.  "Yes;  "  said  he,  "the  day 
of  resurrection,  and  I'm  the  first  son  of  a  gun  out  of  the 
ground !  " 

In  the  early  days,  a  Frenchman  brought  to  Nevada  half  a 
dozen  camels,  which  he  placed  on  his  ranche,  on  the  Carson 
21 


370  A  WFUL  BIG  GOOSES  ! 

River,  a  few  miles  below  Dayton.  The  climate  and  the 
herbage  of  the  country  appear  to  be  well  adapted  to  the 
requirements  of  the  animals,  and  they  have  thriven  and  in- 
creased and  multiplied  until  the  herd  now  numbers  about 
forty,  of  all  ages.  These  camels  are  used  in  packing  salt 
from  the  deserts,  for  carrying  wood,  hay,  and  freight  of  all 
kinds,  and  they  carry  quite  as  large  loads  as  do  the  camels  of 
Arabia.  They  are  not  allowed  to  be  brought  into  the  streets 
of  Virginia  City  during  daylight,  for  the  reason  that  they 
frighten  mules  and  horses,  and  cause  dangerous  runaways. 
Mules  cannot  endure  the  sight  of  them.  Of  nights,  however, 
the  camels  come  into  town  and  pass  along  the  back  streets. 

One  moonlight  night,  as  the  animals  were  solemnly  stalking 
along  an  unfrequented  street,  a  pair  of  Teutons,  who  had 
probably  been  enjoying  themselves  at  some  festival  until  a 
late  hour,  turned  into  the  street  through  which  the  camels 
were  passing:  "  O,  Sheorge,"  cried  one  of  the  men,  to  his 
companion,  "  yoost  see  dem  awful  big  gooses !  " 

The  other  took  one  look,  and  said :  "  Mine  Gott,  Levi,  we 
petter  run  home  quick.  I  dinks  dare  coomes  der  raisurrec- 
tion !  "  and  both  took  to  their  heels. 


CHAPTER  L. 

ORIGINAL  ^ CHARACTERS. 

OCCASIONALLY  persons  not  usually  found  training  in  the 
ranks  of  the  festive  throng  of  Comstockers  are  out  until 
the  "  wee  sma'  "  hours,  and  meet  with  adventures  quite  as 
strange  as  was  that  of  the  two  Germans  who  encountered  a  herd 
of  camels  at  a  time  when  they  supposed  that  there  were  no 
animals  of  the  kind  nearer  than  the  desert  of  Sahara. 

One  of  the  pillars  of  the  church,  a  powerful  exhorter  and  a 
liberal  disburser  of  psalmody  before  the  Lord,  went  astray  one 
Fourth  of  July  night,  and  even  got  into  a  German  dance-house 
before  his  patriotism  was  fully  expended.  However,  he  recol- 
lected himself  presently,  and  took  his  departure.  As  he  was 
meandering  along  the  street,  with  his  hat  resting  in  a  style  of 
graceful  bravado  on  his  left  ear,  he  was  met  by  a  policeman  who 
knew  him  and  advised  him  to  get  home. 

"  Home  ?  No,  sir  !— no  sir !  "  cried  the  exhorter.  "  Live 
while  you  live.  Life  is  short,  sir;  we  are  like  flowers  of  the 
field,  sir — lilies  of  the  valley.  Let  us  not  be  proud  nor  puffed 
up,  for  we  are  all  worms  of  the  dust !  I'm  not  proud,  sir — 
nozur!  I've  been  among  the  daughters  of  the  Teuton,  sir; 
even  among  the  cunning  dancers  whose  feet  are  beautiful  on  the 
mountains — whose  feet  twinkle  as  alabaster  in  the  waters  of  the 
Jordan — also  have  I  been  among  the  sons  of  Jubal,  even  such 
as  handle  the  harp,  the  fiddle,  and  the  psaltry.  I  have  danced 
even  as  David  danced,  and  drank  wine  even  as  Noah,  when  he 
began  to  be  a  husbandman.  But  tell  it  not  in  Gath,  publish  it 
not  in  the  streets  of  Virginia !  "  The  policeman — a  "  son  of 
Belial,"  the  fuddled  pillar  called  him — now  began  to  talk  very 

371 


372  A  FUDDLED  PILLAR. 

plainly,  and  the  godly  reveller  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  error  of 
his  ways,  and  changed  his  tune. 

"Woe  is  me !  "  cried  he,  "  how  could  I  dare  to  burn  incense 
unto  Baal  and  walk  after  strange  gods !  Silver  spread  into 
plates  is  brought  from  Tarshish,  and  gold  from  Uphaz,  but  who 
shall  be  able  to  keep  shekels  of  silver,  wedges  of  gold,  or  rings 
of  jasper  from  these  greedy  Delilahs — Delilahs  not  to  be 
appeased  with  hair,  whose  hands  a  whole  wig  would  not  stay ! 
For  the  mountains  I  will  take  up  a  wailing,  and  for  the  habita- 
tions of  the  wilderness  a  lamentation.  I  flee  from  the  daughters 
of  the  Teuton  ;  they  are  as  black.as  the  tents  of  Kedar.  How 
can  I  face  that  good  woman,  Hanner? — bone  of  my  bone  and 
flesh  of  my  flesh — for  in  the  day  that  I  see  her  face  will  there 
come,  that  selfsame  day,  a  blowing  of  trumpets,  a  breaking  of 
seals,  and  a  pouring  out  of  vials !  No,  sir;  don't  talk  to  me  or 
wrestle  with  me,  even  as  the  angel  wrestled  with  Jacob  at  the 
ford  of  Jabbok;  whither  thou  goest  I  cannot  go;  whither  thou 
lodgest  I  cannot  lodge.  I'm  the  speckled  bird  of  the  mountains 
of  Gilboa — a  hungry  pelican  in  the  wilderness,  sir !  I  go  to  the 
unsealing — to  the  breaking  of  seals,  and  the  blowing  of  trum- 
pets— yea,  I  go  to  face  Hanner ! "  and  the  "  speckled  bird  of 
Gilboa  "  spread  its  wings  and  took  its  zigzag  flight  to  meet  the 
good  Hannah,  mighty  blower  of  trumpets,  breaker  of  seals,  and 
outpourer  of  vials  before  the  Lord. 

These  matters — churches  and  pillars  of  churches — bring  up 
the  "old  French  Doctor,"  of  Virginia  City,  who  was  one  of  the 
oddities  of  the  place.  Whole  volumes  of  his  curious  sayings 
might  be  given.  The  old  man  is  now  dead,  but  he  is  still 
remembered  and  quoted  along  the  Comstock  by  those  who 
knew  him  in  life.  The  old  doctor — for  a  wonder — had  been  to 
church,  and  came  away  delighted. 

"Ah,  my  dear  boy,"  said  he,  "  I  have  to-day  listen  to  one  ver' 
excellent  narratif  by  ze  reverence  preacher.  It  was  about  David 
and  Nasap.  You  see  Nasan  he  vish  to  make  to  David  one 
grand  reproof.  So  Nasan  he  come  to  David  one  day,  and  tell 
to  him  one  ver'  long,  big  sheep  story.  He  fool  David — Nasan 
do — wiz  ze  story  of  ze  sheep  and  ze  big  rich  man  zat  steal  ze 
sheep  of  ze  poor  man,  till  by  and  by  David  become  ver  moche 
interest  in  ze  narratif — become  ver'  much  enrage  wiz  ze  rich 


PHILOSOPHICAL  ADVICE.  373 

man.%  Wiz  zat,  and  precisement  at  zat  moment,  Nasan  he  jump 
up  on  ze  top  of  a  bench  and  he  proclaim  to  David:  'Zou  art 
ze  man!  I  see  ze  wool  in  you  teef ! '  Ah,  my  boy,  zat  was  one 
gran'  reproof — one  ver'  big  what  you  call  sell,  on  Monsieur 
David— eh  ?  " 

"Uncle  Pete,"  the  curb-stone  philosopher,  always  had  his 
"  say "  on  all  topics  of  the  day,  and  he  also  looked  after  the 
welfare  of  such  of  the  rising  generation  as  fell  in  his  way.  His 
disciples  were  generally  of  the  genus  "hoodlum."  Propped  at 
ease  against  a  favorite  lamp-post,  with  one  of  these  before  him, 
he  would  say :  "  Young  man,  don't  you  go  to  strivin'  for  a  big 
name,  or  frettin'  yourself  to  make  a  mark  in  the  world.  It's  all 
wanity  and  wexation  of  spirit'  Study  to  become  a  philosopher. 
Look  at  me  !  Life  has  no  terrors  for  me ;  yet  I  toil  not,  neither 
do  I  spin.  To  live  without  cart  is  my  philosophy.  That's  a 
motto  to  live  up  to.  All  else  is  wanity.  What  does  a  man  get 
by  doin'  things,  makin*  inwentions  and  the  like  ?  Nuthin. 

"Look  at  Christopher  Columbus!  What  does  he  get  for  the 
trouble  he  had  in  discovering  America?  He  gits  called  a 
swindler  and  a  imposture.  He  had  all  his  trouble  for  nuthin', 
for  they  have  found  out  that  he  wasn't  the  feller  that  discoVered 
America  after  all.  It  was  some  Laplander — one  of  them  fellers 
away  up  north.  But  he  never  said  nuthin'  about  it  until  lately. 
The  next  generation  will  find  out  that  the  Laplander  was  a 
humbug. 

"  What  does  William  H.  Shakespeare  git  for  the  trouble  he  had 
in  writin'  them  plays  o'  his  ?  He  gits  busted  out  intirely.  They 
now  say  there  never  was  no  sich  man  as  William  H.  Shake- 
speare, and  I  believe  'em.  No  one  man  could  a-done  it. 

What  was  the  use  of  William  Tell  shootin'  old  Geyser?  He 
run  a  big  risk  of  passin'  in  his  own  checks,  and  now  they  say 
there  never  was  no  sich  man.  He'd  better  staid  up  in  the  moun- 
tains and  prospected. 

"  See  the  life  that  Robinson  Crusoe  led  on  that  '  lone  barren 
isle,'  as  the  song  says,  and  now  they  say  there  never  was  no 
Crusoe. 

''  "Young  man,  don't  you  never  try  to  discover  America,  nor  the 
steam-engine,  nor  the  cotton-gin,  nor  the  telegraft — as  old  Moss 
did — 'cause  you'll  find  out  when  its  too  late  to  be  of  any  benefit 


374:  "DON'T  GIT  MARRIED." 

to  you  that  it  wasn't  you  at  all,  but  some  other  jackass  that  died 
before  you  was  born,  and  don't  know  whether  he  ever  done 
anything  or  not.  Lead  the  life  of  a  philosopher,  young  man. 
Get  all  you  can  out  of  the  world,  and  never  do  nothin'  for  the 
world — then  you  are  ahead  of  the  world  and  are  a  true  philoso- 
pher !  "  The  disciples  of  Uncle  Pete  are  many  and  promising. 

The  inebriated  individual  who  took  his  friend  by  the  button 
and  read  to  him  the  following  lecture  on  matrimony,  was  also 
something  of  a  philosopher :  "  Now,  don't  get  married,  Afferd 
— don't  git  married  !  If  you  git  married  yer  gone  up  the  flume 
— busted  out.  You  won't  be  married  a  week  'fore  yer  wife'll 
put  on  her  worst  shoes  and  stick  'em  rite  up  on  the  stove  under 
your  nose.  When  she  gits  all  the  clothes  she  wants,  she'll  have 
a  sick  sister  down  to  San  Jose ;  wants  two  hunerd  fifty  dollar  go 
see'r  poor  sisser.  Goes ;  sisser  dies ;  father-in-lor  straitened 
sirkstances;  wants  two  hunerd  fifty  more — bury  poor  sisser. 
Goes  into  hunerd  fifty  dollar  wuth  mournin',  then  wants  more 
money  to  come  home  on.  Comes  home'n  calls  you  nassy,  dirty, 
drunken  beas' — don't  you  git  married,  Afferd — don't !  " 

This  'man  should  have  had  a  dog  such  as  that  owned  by  the 
ranchman  on  Truckee  Meadows.  This  rancher  once  brought 
his  dog  to  Virginia  City.  The  dog  rode  into  town  by  the  side 
of  his  master  on  a  load  of  potatoes.  He  was  not  a  pretty  dog, 
He  was  a  tall,  gaunt,  shaggy-haired,  wild-eyed,  brindle  beast  of 
unrecorded  pedigree.  When  the  wagon  halted  in  town  some 
men  who  were  lounging  in  the  neighborhood  began  to  remark 
upon  the  ungainly  appearance  of  the  countryman's  dog. 

"  Fellers,"  said  the  owner  of  the  animal,  coming  to  the  front, 
"  that  air  ain't  a  purty  dog,  I  know — he's  like  me,  makes  no  per- 
tentions  tonat'ral  beauty-1— but  he's  jist  the  durndest  knowenest 
dog  what  ever  wore  har.  Now,  he's  got  more  instink,  that  dog 
has,  an'  more  savey,  an'  pen'tration  into  human  natur,  right  in 
that  ugly  old  cabeza  of  his,  nor  can  be  found  in  the  heds  of  a 
whole  plaza  full  of  eddicated  town  dogs — poodles  and  sich. 

"Now,  that's  what  I  pride  in  him  fur — his  reg'lar  human 
sense.  I  tell  yer,  fellers,  he's  jist  the  durndest  dog  out !  Now, 
ef  I  come  home  from  town  perfectly  sober  (when  I've  left  him 
to  see  after  the  ranch),  it  would  do  your  hearts  good  to  see  that 
dog  show  off  what  a  sense  of  appreciation  he's  got  of  me. 


MR.     JONES'S  GUEST.  375 

Fellers,  his  gorgeous  tail  then  stands  aloft ;  he  skyugles  about ; 
he  runs  on  afore  me,  a-scrapin'  up  the  yearth  with  his  hind  feet, 
sendin'  the  chips  a-flyin';  he  holds  up  his  head  and  barks  in  a 
cheerful,  manly  tone  of  voice,  escortin'  me  forward,  and  feelin 
prouder'n  ef  he'd  holed  a  woodchuck  ! 

"But  let  me  come  home  full  of  tangle-leg,  sheep-herder's 
delight,  and  tarant'ler  juice,  and  that  is  the  durndest  shamedest 
dog  above  ground.  He  jist  takes  one  look  at  me  and  he  knows 
it  all.  Down  goes  his  tail,  he  lops  his  years,  hangs  his  head, 
squats  his  back,  and  slinks  away,  and  crawls  under  the  barn — 
acturly  ashamed  to  be  seen  about  the  primises  for  fear  some- 
body'll  find  out  I  own  him !  " 

Just  previous  to  the  Senatorial  contest  which  resulted  in  his 
election,  the  Hon.  J.  P.  Jones  had  the  following  funny  adventure 
in  Virginia  City  with  a  man  who  came  to  hire  himself  out  as  a 
"  fighter  " : 

Mr.  Jones  and  several  friends  were  in  one  of  the  first-class 
saloons,  sipping  their  wine,  smoking  and  chatting,  when  a  rather 
strange-looking  customer  entered  the  place,  and,  sauntering  up 
to  the  group,  began  the  operation  of  "  eying  over  "  the  gentle- 
men composing  it. 

He  was  a  man  of  middle  age  and  medium  height,  with  arms 
disproportionately  long,  great,  spreading  hands,  and  knotty 
fingers.  His  angular,  ungainly  form  was  poorly  and  scantily 
clad,  and  he  was  topped  out  with  a  curious  little  bullet-head,  set 
upon  a  very  short  allowance  of  neck.  From  the  sides  of  his 
little,  round  head  stood  leaning  out  two  great  pulpy  ears,  and 
all  that  appeared  on  his  face  in  the  way  of  beard  was  a  jet-black 
stubbed  moustache.  This  seemed  to  have  been  planted  a  hair 
at  a  time  with  a  pegging-awl  and  hammer,  the  latter  coming 
down  on  the  defenseless  nose  as  each  bristle  was  inserted,  and 
so  intimidating  said  organ  that  it  had  ever  since  remained 
crouched  out  of  sight  behind  the  hairy  stockade.  A  large,  livid 
scar  described  a  semi-circle  round  one  of  his  projecting  cheek- 
bones, and  passing  down  entered  the  corner  of  his  mouth,  giving 
to  the  feature  an  ugly  upward  hitch  on  that  side.  Wabbling  his 
little,  glittering  grey  eyes  over  the  party  before  him,  until  said 
orbs  rested  upon  the  rotund  form  and  rosy  face  of  Mr.  Jones, 
he  pulled  off  the  hirsute  ten-pin  ball  which  he  would  have  called 
his  head,  a  scrap  of  hat,  and  making  an  awkward  bow,  said : 


376  THE   WAR-HOSS  OF  THE  HILLS. 

"J.  P.  Jones,  I  believe?" 

"  That  is  my  name,  sir,"  said  Jones. 

"  Correct,"  sententiously  observed  the  strange  visitor. 

"  Do  you  want  to  see  me  ?  "  said  Jones. 

"About  three  minutes,  and  in  private,  if  you  please." 

Mr.  Jones  led  the  way  to  a  large  private  room  in  the  rear  of 
the  saloon. 

"  Mr.  Jones,  sir,  you  don't  know  me,"  said  the  fellow,  "  but 
when  you  lived  in  old  Tuolumne,  I  war  also  in  that  part  of  Cali- 
forney — in  the  adjinin'  county.  Mr.  Jones,  I'm  the  •'  Taranterler 
of  Calaveras ; '  I'm  a  war-hoss  of  the  hills  and  a  fighter  from 
h— 1!" 

"  I  don't  dispute  your  word,  sir,"  said  J.  P.,  "  but  how  does 
your  being  '  war-horse  of  the  hills  '  concern  me  ?  " 

"I'm  here  to  tell  you.  Here,  now,  you  are  goin'  into  this 
here  contest,  and  it's  liable  to  be  a  very  lively  one.  About 
'lection  day  it'll  be  all-fired  hot.  Now  what  you'll  need  will  be 
a  good  fighter;  a  feller  to  stand  up,  knock  down,  and  drag  out 
for  you ;  a  man  what  can  go  to  the  polls  and  knock  down  right 
an'  left — wade  through  everything !  " 

Mr.  Jones  said  he  had  not  thought  it  would  be  necessary  to 
have  such  a  man  at  the  polls  on  election  day. 

"Oh,  but  it  will !  "  cried  the  man  of  muscle.  "You  see  you 
don't  know  about  them  things.  I'll  manage  it  all  for  you. 

"  So  you  want  me  to  hire  you  as  my  fighter  ?  " 

"Jest  so!" 

"  What  would  be  your  price  from  now  till  after  election  ?  You 
see  as  I've  never  yet  had  occasion  to  hire  a  fighter,  I  dont  know 
much  about  the  value  of  such  service. 

"Well,  I  couldn't  undertake  the  job  short  of  $1,000;  there'll 
be  lots  of  work  to  do." 

"  Ain't  that  pretty  high  ?  " 

"  Of  course  its  a  considerable  sum,  but  thar's  a  terrible  rough 
set  over  here.  These  Washoe  fellow  are  nearly  h — 1  themselves, 
and  they  are  more  on  the  cut  and  shoot  than  is  healthy.  You 
see  $1,000  is  no  money  at  all  when  you  calkerlate  the  risk.  I'm 
liable  to  be  chopped  all  to  pieces,  riddled  with  bullets,  and 
either  killed  out  and  out  or  crippled  for  life.  You  see  $1,000  is 
no  money  at  all." 


SOMETHING  OF  A  FIGHTER.  377 

"  Well,  come  to  look  at  it  in  that  light,  I  don't  know  but  your 
price  is  reasonable  enough." 

"  Cheap !  of  course  it  is.  I  rather  like  your  style  or  I  wouldn't 
undertake  the  job  at  that  rigger.  Come — is  it  a  bargain?  Am 
I  your  man,  at  the  rigger  named  ?  " 

"  Well,  not  so  fast.  If  I  am  to  have  a  fighter,  I  want  the  best 
that  is  to  be  had.  I  don't  want  a  fellow  that  will  be  kicked  and 
•cuffed  about  town  by  every  bummer.  I  am  able  to  pay  for  a 
first-class  fighter,  and  I  won't  have  anything  else !  " 

"  Ain't  I  a  fighter  ?  "  rolling  his  eyes  fiercely  and  thrusting 
first  his  right,  then  his  left  arm,  straight  out  from  the  shoulder, 
•ducking  his  head  comically  about  and  poising  himself  on  one 
foot;  "will  anybody  kick  and  cuff  me?  me,  the  war-hoss  of  the 
hills ;  the  Taranterler  of  Calaveras  ?  Not  much !  " 

"  Have  you  ever  whipped  anybody  ?  " 

"  Ever  whipped  anybody  ?  Me — have  I  ever  whipped  any- 
body? Ha  !  ha!  ha!  You  make  me  laugh.  Next  you  will  be 
asking  if  I  was  ever  whipped.  Show  me  your  man — show  me 
your  men — for  I  ain't  perticular  about  'em  coming  one  at  a  time. 
Bring  'em  on,  and  I'll  whip  all  that  can  stand  in  this  room  in 
one  minute  by  the  clock !  " 

"  Well,"  said  "  J.  P.,"  "  I  think  you'll  do ;  but,  as  I  said  before, 
I  want  the  best  man  in  the  country.  My  fighter  must  be  a  reg- 
ular lightning  striker.  Now  I  have  another  man  in  my  eye. 
He  is  something  of  a  fighter.  Has  a  graveyard  of  his  own  of 
considerable  size.  It  lies  between  the  pair  of  you.  The  best 
man  is  the  man  for  my  money." 

"  D — n  your  man  !  Bring  him  on.  D — n  me,  I'll  devour  him  ! 
Show  him  to  the  Taranterler !  " 

"  Remain  here  two  minutes  and  I'll  bring  him  in." 

Now,  before  coming  into  the  room  with  the  fellow,  Mr.  Jones 
had  observed  James  N.  Cartter — commonly  known  on  the 
Pacific  Coast  as  Big  Jim  Cartter — sauntering  around  the  saloon. 
As  is  well  known  to  everybody  in  this  city,  and  pretty  generally 
throughout  the  towns  and  cities  of  Nevada  and  California,  Jim 
Cartter  is  a  powerfully-built  man,  standing  over  six  feet  in  his 
stockings,  a  man  who  is  "  on  the  shoulder  "  and  who  is  at  home 
with  either  knife  or  pistol,  as  more  than  one  grave  can  testify. 
Calling  to  Cartter,  Mr.  Jones  briefly  made  known  the  situation 
and  invited  him  in  to  interview  the  "war-hoss  of  the  hills." 


378  BEATING  A  RETREAT. 

This  was  as  good  a  thing  as  Cartter  wanted,  and  into  the  room 
they  went. 

"  Here,"  said  Jones,  as  they  entered  the  room,  "  is  the  man. 
Nobody  will  disturb  you  here,  and  after  all  is  over  the  best  man 
is  the  man  for  my  coin." 

Jim  waltzed  into  the  room  with  his  hat  standing  on  two  hairs 
and  a  wicked  smile  playing  upon  his  features.  Said  he : 

"  Is  this  the  blessed  infant  that  has  come  to  eat  me  up  ?  Is 
this  the  Calaveras  skunk  that  has  come  over  here  to  set  him- 
self up  as  '  Chief?  '  Move  back  the  chairs  !  " 

With  this  Cartter  began  to  wriggle  from  side  to  side  in  the 
effort  to  "  shuck "  himself  of  the  long-tailed  black  coat  he 
always  wore,  and  in  so  doing  he  displayed  on  one  side  that 
famous  old  white-handled,  sixteen-inch  bowie-knife,  his  constant 
companion,  and  on  the  other  the  but  of  a  navy  revolver. 

"  So  this  is  the  lop-eared  cur  of  Calaveras  who  comes  here  to 
set  up  as  a  fighter  ?  Move  the  chairs  to  the  wall !  "  cried  Cartter 
still  wriggling  at  his  coat. 

"  Mr.  Jones,"  cried  the  mighty  devourer  of  men,  "  Mr.  Jones 
this  man  is  a  friend  of  yours.  I  can't  fight  any  friend  of  yours. 
With  any  friend  of  yours  I  am  a  lamb ;  I  could  not  harm  a  hair 
of  his  head!1' 

"  No  friend  at  all.  He  is  a  fighter  like  yourself.  Besides, 
what  has  friendship  got  to  do  with  a  transaction  involving  $1,000  ? 
I  want  the  best  man  I  can  find.  If  you  whip  this  fellow  I  hire 
you  as  my  fighter.  That's  all  there  is  about  it." 

"  That's  fair  and  business-like,  you  skunk !  "  cried  Cartter. 
"  Peel  yourself  and  waltz  out  here  !  " 

"  Mr.  Jones,"said  the  "  war-hoss  of  the  hills,"  in  a  mild  con- 
ciliatory tone,  "  I  am  satisfied  that  this  man  is  a  friend  of  yours. 
You  might  insult  me  and  banter  me  and  tear  me  all  to  pieces, 
but  against  a  friend  of  yours  I'd  never  lift  a  hand.  Now  your 
friend  is  of  the  right  stripe ;  I  like  his  looks.  Thar's  no  use  of 
two  good  men  a-fightin  for  nothin,  so  I'll  tell  you  what  you  best 
do.  You  give  him  $500  and  me  $500  an'  we'll  work  together. 
The  two  of  us  could  chaw  up  the  town — we'd  be  a  terror  to  it." 

"  No,"  said  Jones,  "  you  won't  do.     You  ain't  game,  you—" 

"  He's  a  dunghill !  "  chipped  in  Cartter. 

"  I  can't  fight  in  a  room,"  said  the  fellow ;  "  I  have  never  yet 
had  a  fight  in  a  room.  I  don't  like  it." 


JIM  GARTTER  OR  THE  DEVIL. 


381 


"  I  guess  you're  not  struck  after  it  anywhere  !  "  said  Cartter. 

"  It  is  rather  close  to  fight  in  a  room,"said  Jones.  Then  turn- 
ing to  the  fellow,  whose  eyes  were  still  wandering  in  the  direct- 
ion of  Cartter's  coat-tails,  he  handed  him  a  twenty-dollar  gold 
piece,  saying ;  "  Take  this :  I  hire  you  for  my  open-air  fighter. 
You  are  never  to  fight  for  me  except  in  the  open  air  and  where 
there  is  a  good  chance  for  you  to  run." 

"  Thank  you  Mr.  Jones,"  said  the  fellow,  pocketing  the  coin 
and  making  for  the  door.  **  Thank  you,  and  if  I  ever  see  a 
show  to  put  in  a  lick  for  you  I'll  not  forget  to  do  it." 

"  Provided  you  have  a  chance  to  run,"  sneered  Cartter. 

Turning  as  he  was  passing  out  of  the  door,  the  fellow  said : 

"  It's  all  very  nice,  Mr.  Jones,  but  that  is  either  Jim  Cartter 
or  the  devil,  and  you  can't  ring  him  in  on  me  !  " 


CHAPTER  LI. 


AS  a  rule  the  miners    have  no  very  exalted    opinion  of 
geologists,   mineralogists,  and    other  scientific    persons 
who  come  into  the  ^country  and  claim  to  be  able  to  tell 
all  about  each  lead  and  stratum  of  rock,  from  the  earliest  ages 
down  to  the  last  Presidential  election. 

In  1874,  after  a  State  Mineralogist  had  been  elected  in  Nevada 
— it  was  just  previous  to  the  transit  of  Venus — a  Comstocker 
gave  the  following  information  in  regard  to  the  duties  of  the 
newly-elected  officer,  they  not  being  very  well  understood  by 
the  majority  of  the  people: 

*  I.  He  will  calculate  all  eclipses  of  the  sun,  moon,  and  larger  stars,  as  soon 
as  he  is  reliably  informed  that  any  have  occurred,  sending  in  to  the  Board  of 
Alderman  on  the  following  Tuesday  evening  his  diagnosis,  in  order  that  it 
may  be  duly  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Fire  and  Water. 

2.  He  is  to  discover  earthquakes  and  provide  suitable  means  for  the  exter- 
mination of  the  same  ;  also,  for  book-agents,  erysipelas,  corn  doctors,  cerebro- 
spinal  meningitis  and  the  Grecian  bend. 

3.  He  will  be  expected  to  foretell  cloud-bursts,  and  to  cause  them  to  burst 
by  degrees. 

4.  He  is  to  guard  the  State  against  irruptions  of  the  grasshopper,  and  must 
at  suitable  intervals,  put  up  petitions  for  the  putting  down  of  the  potato-bug. 

5.  When  Venus  transits  he  is  to  go  up  to  the  top  of  Mount  Davidson,  the 
day  before,  provided  with  a  shot-gun  and  other  nautical  instruments  with 
which  to  stop  her,  if,  in  his  opinion,  what  she  does  on  that  occasion  is  liable 
to  have  a  bad  effect  on  any  of  the  leading  interests  of  this  State — particularly 
the  anchovy-fields  and  the  bologna  marshes. 

6.  In  case  of  an  aurora  borealis  he  will  let  it  take  its  course — the  same  with 
comets  and  measles. 

7.  In  the  spring,  when  the  farmers  have  sown  their  cereals,  he  is  to  go  down 
into  the  valleys  and  reduce  the  atmospheric  pressure,  in  order  that  the  grains 

382 


A  STRANGE  MIXTURE  OF  DUTIES.  383 

may  spfeut  without  painfully  straining  themselves  in  swelling ;  also,  in  the 
fall  he  will  perform  the  same  duty,  so  that  the  pumpkins  and  cabbages  may 
grow  with  less  effort, 

8.  He  will  assist  the  Fish  Commissioner  in  the  introduction  into  our  State 
of  the  alligator  and  other  improved  breeds  of  shrimps  ;  will  splice  out  short 
rainbows,  cure  warts  free  of  charge,  and  furnish  antidotes  for  harelip,  night- 
mare, corners  in  stocks,  twins,  and  Beecher-Tilton  at  the  same  price — sending 
his  bill  in  to  the  Board  of  County  Commissioners. 

9.  In  case  of  foreign  invasion,  by  the  Piute  Indians,  or  any  other  intestine 
foe,  he  is  to  so  alter  the  boundary  lines  to  our  State,  so  as  to  throw  the  part 
containing  the  war  into  California — reserving,  of  course,  our  right  to  the  free 
navigation  of  the  waters  of  Lake  Tahoe. 

10.  Should  he  at  any  time  discover  in  any  part  of  the  State  indications  of 
milk-sickness,  female  suffrage,  poison-oak  or  choke-damp,  he  will  forthwith 
proceed  to  make  an  assay  of  the  same,  and,  having   extracted  the  cube  root, 
will  deposit  it  among  the  archives  of  the  Pacific  Coast  Pioneers  ;  with  a  recom- 
mendation to  the  mercy  of  the  Court. 

11.  When  a  man  is  bitten  by  a  mad  dog,  he  is  to  kill  the  dog  first — the  same 
if  the  dog  bites  anybody  else. 

12.  When  not  otherwise  engaged,  he  is  to  keep  our  cows  from  giving  bloody 
milk  ;  cause  the  water  to  run  up  hill  in  the  Virginia  City  sewers ;  bag  the 
surplus  of  all  "  Washoe  zephyrs  "  for  use  in  the  lower  levels  of  the  mines ;  clip 
the  ears  of  black-and-tans  ;  cause  the  sun  to  shine  on  cloudy  days  ;  vaccinate 
for  fits  ;  have  the  moon  shine  on  dark  nights,  and  cause  all  the  leading  mines 
on  the  Comstock  range  to  pay  monthly  dividends  every  two  weeks. 

In  the  eastern  suburbs  of  Virginia  City  is  situated  the  Chinese 
quarter  of  the  town,  commonly  called  "  Chinatown."  In  this 
Chinese  quarter  live  several  hundred  Mongolians  of  both  sexes 
and  all  ages  and  conditions.  In  their  part  of  the  town  they  have 
stores  of  various  kinds,  shops,  and  markets,  gambling-dens,  a 
joss-house,  where  they  worship  their  gods,  and  all  other  estab- 
lishments required  by  them  either  for  business  or  pleasure.  In 
their  part  of  the  town  these  people  live  much  as  they  would  at 
home  in  China. 

Many  of  the  men  are  employed  as  servants  in  families  in  the 
city,  generally  in  the  capacity  of  cooks.  In  most  of  the  restau- 
rants, Chinese  cooks  are  also  employed.  Many  of  them  are 
laundrymen,  and  the  town  is  full  of  wash-houses.  There  are 
several  Chinese-physcians  in  the  city,  some  of  whom  are  frequently 
consulted  by  white  persons.  Among  the  residents  of  China- 
town are  a  great  number  of  wood-peddlers.  During  the  summer 
months  they  collect  wood  among  the  hills  surrounding  the  city, 
often  scouting  out  several  miles.  They  get  wood  where  a  white 


384  WICKED  MONGOLIAN  TRICKS. 

man  would  see  nothing  that  he  would  think  of  attempting  to 
convert  into  fuel.  For  many  miles  in  all  directions  about  the 
town  they  have  dug  up  and  hacked  to  pieces  the  stumps  left  by 
the  white  men  who  first  denuded  the  hills  of  their  sparse  cover- 
ing of  cedar  and  nut-pine. 

The  Chinese  wood-peddlers  are  a  feature  of  the  town  in  winter. 
They  are  to  be  seen  on  every  street,  patiently  plodding  along 
behind  the  donkey  on  which  is  piled  their  stock-in-trade. 
They  utter  no  cry  in  passing  along  the  streets,  but  expect  to  be 
called  by  those  who  want  wood.  The  common  price  is  one 
dollar  for  a  donkey-load,  but  when  the  weather  is  very  cold  and 
stormy,  or  when  a  storm  is  imminent,  if  you  say  :  "  How  much-ee, 
John  ?  "  John,  with  a  knowing  look  from  his  weather  eye,  in 
the  direction  of  the  approaching  storm,  glibly  says:  "One 
dolla  quarty !  "  If  the  storm  is  very  bad  he  probably  says : 
"  One  dolla  hap  !  "  The  price  of  wood  goes  up  and  down  with 
the  mercury. 

John  also  understands  the  art  of  piling  wood.  He  cuts  his 
sticks  very  short  and  piles  them  up  to  a  great  height.  While  he 
is  trading  with  you  he  keeps  the  head  of  his  donkey  turned 
toward  you,  so  you  have  but  an  end  view  of  the  commodity  in 
which  you  propose  to  invest.  To  the  casual  observer  this 
manceuver  of  the  Mongolian  may  seem  to  be  mere  accident,  but 
it  is  pure  cunning  and  is.  one  of  the  tricks  of  his  trade.  Turn  his 
donkey  about  broadside  and  view  your  load  of  wood  edgewise, 
and  it  is  not  much  thicker  than  a  trade  dollar.  Take  a  rear 
view,  and  you  find  that  the  rotten  ends  of  all  the  sticks  of  the 
load  are  pointing  in  the  direction  of  the  donkey's  tail.  When 
you  see  John  approaching  you  he  seems  to  have  a  monster  load 
on  his  donkey,  but  when  he  is  opposite  there  is  little  of  it  but 
"ragged  edge."  Take  what  appears  to  be  quite  a  little  "jag" 
of  wood,  as  seen  on  the  donkey,  and  when  it  is  tumbled  off,  and 
lies  on  the  ground,  half  of  it  seems  to  have  disappeared — such 
is  their  cunning  in  piling  it  on  their  donkeys. 

The  Chinese  are  a  curious  people  and  have  curious  notions  on 
all  subjects.  They  are  like  Europeans  in  nothing.  They  are 
very  superstitious,  and  believe  in  ghosts  and  all  that  sort  of  thing, 
yet  they  sometimes  act  as  though  Satan  himself  could  not  fright- 
en them.  As  showing  their  notions  in  regard  to  funerals,  death, 


'MELICAN  AND  CHINAMEN  COMPARED.  385 

and  a  ftiture  state,  I  am  able  to  give  the  ideas  of  a  very  intelligent 
Chinaman,  of  the  name  of  Wing  Lee. 

On  the  29th  of  June,  1875,  at  n  o'clock  at  night,  there  occur- 
red in  Virginia  City  an  explosion  of  nitro-glycerine  by  which 
ten  or  twelve  persons  lost  their  lives,  three  buildings  were  torn 
to  peices  and  then  totally  destroyed  by  a  fire  which  broke  out  in 
them.  The  explosion  occurred  in  a  room  accupied  by  General 
J.  L.  Van  Bokkelen,  in  a  large  brick  building.  The  General 
was  agent  for  a  giant-powder  company,  and  at  the  time  of  the 
explosion  was  known  to  be  experimenting,  with  a  view  to  the 
invention  of  an  explosive  that  should  be  far  more  powerful  than 
anything  known  ;  but  nobody  knew  that  he  was  conducting  his 
experiments  in  the  heart  of  the  city,  until  after  the  mischief  had 
been  done.  What  it  was  that  blew  up  was  never  exactly  ascer- 
tained, but  it  was  known  that  he  had  in  his  room  a  considerable 
quantity  of  gun-cotton  saturated  with  nitro-glycerine.  He  also 
had  in  his  room  a  pet  monkey,  and  by  many  it  was  supposed 
that  the  monkey  having  seen  the  General  experimenting,  tried 
his  hand  among  the  chemicals.  Man  or  monkey,  the  explosion 
killed  ten  or  twelve  persons,  and  destroyed  property  to  the 
value  of  nearly  $200,000.  Among  those  killed  were  several 
leading  citizens,  and  the  funeral  procession  on  the  occasion  of 
their  burial  was  one  of  the  largest  and  most  imposing  ever  seen 
in  the  place. 

It  was  while  this  procession  was  passing  through  the  town  that 
the  Chinaman  referred  to  above  gave  me  his  views  in  regard  to 
such  matters.  What  he  said  can  only  be  given  in  his  words. 
Said  he  :  "  Suppose  some  big  lich  (rich)  Chinaman  die ;  Chi- 
naman no  get  newspaper  all  same  'Melican,  so  he  family  send-ee 
some  letter  to  everybody  come  bury.  Everybody  be  belly  glad 
for  cause  one  big  lich  man  die ;  he  all  heap  come — two,  tlee 
(three)  thousand  maybe — all  glad  get  heap  eat-ee.  Put  many 
mat  on  ground ;  10  o'clock  morning  all  begin  eatee  pake  (pork) 
and  licee  (rice) ;  all  belly  glad,  heap  eat-ee. 

Now  all  people,  everyone,  he1  get  tlee  (three)  piec-ee  white 
cloth — two  yard-ee  long,  hap  (half)  yard-eewide.  One  piec-ee 
he  tie  'bout  he  head;  one  piec-ee  'bout  he  waist,  one  piec-ee  on 
arm — all  white ;  no  black  same  'Melican  man.  Now,  all  go  to 
take  dead  man ;  all  go  foot,  no  wagon,  no  horse-ee,  all  go  foot. 


386  A  GHOSTLY  DIFFERENCE. 

Big  lichmanhe  get  onebighousee  make  on  top  big  hill ;  housee 
all  stone.  Put  he  in  he  housee  he  sleep  well,  all  set  up  in  he 
chair  make  in  stone ;  all  he  fine  dress  put  on,  all  he  diamond, 
all  he  watch-ee,  all  he  chain — everything  same  one  live  man. 
Then  he  git  all  fasten  up  by  heself  in  he  housee ;  then  he  family 
hire  one  man  watchee  every  nightee  all  time,  so  no  man  he  come 
dig.  So  everybody  he  go  home  belly  glad,  for  because  he  got 
one  big  dinner,  tlee  piecee  good  clothee — all  Chinaman  belly 
glad  when  one  big  lich  Chinaman  dies.  Poor  Chinaman,  put  he 
in  one  hole  like  'Melican,  all  in  mud — no  big  dinner,  no  clothee. 
Some  big  lich  Chinaman  he  funeral  cost-ee  ten,  twenty  thousand 
dolla. 

One  dead  Chinaman  he  all  same  one  live  Chinaman — he  heap 
eat  all  time,  he  come  back  to  he  hous-ee,  to  he  bed,  he  walkee 
in  house  all  same  like  when  he  no  dead.  Suppose  you  no  put 
some  pake  (pork),  some  licee  (rice)  on  he  grave  he  come  back 
in  dark  nightee,  talkee  in  your  ear,  he  pinch  you  toe.  Dead 
Chinaman  heap  hungry,  all  same  one  live  Chinaman — heap  want 
eatee. 

Chinaman  no  likee  git  bury  this  countlee — he  no  git  good 
feed — likee  be  take  back  he  own  countlee  to  he  father,  he 
mother,  he  sister,  he  brother,  so  he  git  feed — no  likee  die  here. 
You  say  'Melican  man  no  come  back  when  he  die  ? — me  no  sabe 
why— Chinaman  he  come  back,  sure.  Dead  Chinaman  all  same 
live  Chinaman. 

One  'Melican  man  he  die  on  one  bed  ;  two  nightee  more  you 
put  one  live  'Melican  sleep  same  bed — no  good  !  You  put  one 
live  Chinaman  in  one  dead  Chinaman  bed,  dead  Chinaman  he 
makee  some  d — d  hot  for  live  Chinaman — you  bet!  Dead 
he  all  same  live  Chinaman — Chinaman  he  never  all  dead:  You 
know  one  Chinaman  two,  tlee  year  'go,  he  git  kill  down  China- 
town ?  Well,  he  heap  come  back — many  Chinaman  see  him — 
you  bet.'  He  lookee  all  blood ;  he  say  all  time :  *  Oh  !  oh !  ' 
and  all  time  he  say :  'You  go  catchee that  one  man  what  he  kill 
me !  *  He  come  walkee  up  and  down  belly  much.  One  time  he 
no  come  one  hap  (half)  year ;  all  other  time  he  come  every  week. 
When  dead  Chinaman  he  come  back  some  people  he  much 
flaid,  put-a  blanket  on  he  head  ;  some  people  heeno  flaid,  talkee 
to  dead  Chinaman :  '  What  matter  ?  You  no  sleep  well  ?  ' 


RESTLESS  SPIRITS. 


387 


Some  Chinaman  no  got  good  eye,  no  can  see  dead  Chinaman ; 
he  only  can  hear  dead  man  walkee,  maybe  talkee.  Me  hear 
belly  good,  me  no  got  good  eyes — no  see  dead  Chinaman. 

Dead  Chinaman  all  the  same  like  one  live  Chinaman  !  Las' 
year  one  Chinaman  git  die  here  in  this  town,  git  bury  over  China 
bury-ground.  Nex'  night  he  come  back  he  say  to  one  man : 
*  Me  no  can  sleep ;  my  one  leg  he  crook  up,  me  belly  (very) 
sore.'  But  that  one  man  he  will  no  go  straight  he  leg,  so  he  go 
to  some  other  several  Chinaman  and  all  time  say :  '  Come  fix 
me  leg.'  Well,  when  they  can  no  do  other  way  some  Chinaman 
go  dig  up  fix  he  leg ;  he  sleep  belly  well,  he  come  back  no  more. 
Dead  Chinaman  he  not  get  plenty  eat,  he  come  back,  sure — you. 
bet !  Dead  Chinaman  all  same  like  one  live  Chinaman !  " 


22 


CHAPTER  LII. 

CHINESE   OPIUM-DENS. 

IN  Virginia  City,  as  in  all  other  places  where  there  is 
a  considerable  Chinese  population,  are  found  opium-dens. 
These  are  sometimes  on  the  first  floor,  but  are  generally 
in  a  cellar  or  basement.  We  will  take  a  look  at  one  not  in 
any  building:  it  is  a  subterranean  opium-den — a  cave  of 
oblivion : — 

In  the  side  of  a  little  hill  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  Chinese 
quarter  of  Virginia  City  is  to  be  seen  a  low  door  of  rough 
boards.  An  open  cut,  dug  in  the  slope  of  the  hill  and  walled 
with  rough  rocks,  leads  to  the  door.  The  boards  forming 
the  door  and  its  frame  are  blackened  by  smoke,  particularly 
at  the  top,  for  the  den  has  neither  chimney  nor  flue.  The 
surface  of  the  hill  forms  its  roof.  All  that  is  to  be  seen  on 
the  outside  is  the  door  and  the  walled  entrance  leading  up  to 
it.  Not  a  sound  is  heard  within  or  about  the  place.  The 
cave  of  the  Seven  Sleepers  was  not  more  silent.  But  gently 
pushing  the  door,  it  opens— opens  as  noiselessly  as  though 
hinged  in  cups  of  oil. 

At  first  we  can  see  nothing,  save  a  small  lamp  suspended 
from  the  centre  of  the  ceiling.  This  lamp  burns  with  a  dull 
red  light  that  illuminates  nothing.  It  seems  more  like  a 
distant  fiery  star  than  anything  mundane.  Though  at  first 
we  see  nothing  but  the  lamp,  gradually  our  eyes  adapt  them- 
selves to  the  dim  light,  and  we  can  make  out  the  walls  and 
some  of  the  larger  objects  in  the  place.  A  voice  says :  "  What 
you  want  ?  "  Looking  in  the  direction  whence  proceeds  the 
inquiry,  we  see  a  sallow  old  Mongolian  seated  near  a  small 
table.  He  is  the  proprietor  of  the  den.  "  What  you  want  ?  " 

388 


•THE   HEATHEN   CHIXEE.' 


HOW  THEY  SMOKE  THE  DRUG.  391 

he  repeats.  We  feel  that  we  have  no  business  where  we  are, 
but  to  speak  the  truth  is  always  best,  therefore  we  simply  say, 
in  pigeon-English:  "Me  comee  see  your  smokee  saloon." 
The  old  fellow  settles  one  elbow  on  the  table  before  him,  and 
makes  a  remark  which  appears  to  be  the  Chinese  equivalent 
for  "  Humph !  " 

Before  this  taciturn  dispenser  of  somnial  drugs  are  a  num- 
ber of  little  horn  boxes  of  opium,  several  opium-pipes,  small 
scales  for  weighing,  with  beam  of  bone,  covered  with  black 
dots  instead  of  figures ;  small  steel  spatulas,  wire  probes,  and 
and  other  smoking-apparatus. 

We  now  observe  that  two  sides  of  the  den  are  fitted  up  with 
bunks,  one  above  the'  other,  like  the  berths  on  shipboard.  A 
cadaverous  opium-smoker  is  seen  in  nearly  every  bunk.  These 
men  are  in  various  stages  of  stupor.  Each  lies  upon  a  scrap 
of  grass  mat  or  old  blanket.  Before  him  is  a  small  alcohol 
lamp  burning  with  a  blue  flame  which  gives  out  but  little 
light — only  enough  to  cast  a  sickly  glare  upon  the  corpse- 
like  face  of  the  smoker,  as  he  holds  his  pipe  in  the  flame,  and 
by  a  long  draught  inhales  and  swallows  the  smoke  of  the 
loved  drug.  These  fellows  are.  silent  as  dead  men,  and  seem 
unconscious  of  ojir  presence.  Occasionally,  at  a  sign,  the  pro- 
prietor arises  and  furnishes  the  customer  a  fresh  supply  of  the 
drug.  The  peculiar  sweetish-bitter  odor  of  the  burning  opium 
fills  and  saturates  the  whole  place — one  can  almost  taste  it. 

While  the  majority,  lying  upon  their  sides,  and  propped  on 
one  elbow,  are  calmly  inhaling  their  dose,  a  few  appear  to 
have  had  enough.  These  lie  with  their  heads  resting  upon 
short  sections  of  bamboo,  which  serve  this  curious  people 
as  pillows,  and  move  no  more  than  dead  men.  The  eyes 
of  some  are  wide  open,  as  in  a  fixed  stare,  while  those  of 
others  are  partially  or  wholly  closed.  If  they  have  any  of 
those  heavenly  visions  of  which  we  are  told,  they  keep  them 
to  themselves;  as,  save  in  a  few  somniloquous  mutterings, 
they  utter  no  sound.  The  door  is  gently  opened,  and  a  gaunt, 
wild-eyed  Mongolian  slips  stealthily  in.  The  old  man  at  the 
table  merely  elevates  his  eyes.  The  newcomer  steps  out  of 
his  sandals  and,  making  no  more  noise  than  a  cat,  crosses  the 
earthen  floor  of  the  room  and  creeps  into  a  vacant  bunk.  The 


BABEL, 


boss  of  this  cavern  of  Morpheus  now  raises  his  elbows  from 
the  table,  takes  up  a  pipe  and  its  belongings,  sleepily  lights 
one  of  the  small  alcohol  lamps,  and  then  places  the  whole 
before  his  customer.  The  old  man  then  returns  to  his  table 
and  sits  down.  Not  a  word  is  spoken. 

Thus  the  business  of  the  cavern  goes  on,  day  and  night,  and 
this  is  all  of  opium-smoking  that  appears  on  the  surface,  tales 
of  travellers  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding.  What  shapes 
may  appear  to  the  sleepers,  or  what  flight  their  souls  may 
take  into  interstellar  regions,  we  know  not.  To  a  looker-on 
it  is  all  vapid,  vacuous  stupefaction. 

Not  a  few  white  men  in  Virginia  City — and  a  few  women — 
are  opium-smokers.  They  visit  the  Chinese  opium  dens  two 
or  three  times  a  week.  They  say  that  the  effect  is  exhilara- 
ting— that  it  is  the  same  as  intoxication  produced  by  drinking 
liquor,  except  that  under  the  influence  of  opium  a  man  has 
all  his  senses,  and  his  brain  is  almost  supernaturally  bright 
and  clear.  An  American  told  me  that  he  had  been  an  opium- 
smoker  for  eighteen  years,  and  said  there  were  about  fifty 
persons  in  Virginia  City  who  were  of  the  initiated.  In  San 
Francisco  he  says  there  are  over  five  hundred  white  opium- 
smokers,  many  women  among  them. 

During  summer,  men  who  have  for  sale  all  manner  of 
quack  nostrums,  men  with  all  kinds  of  notions  for  sale,  street- 
shows,  beggars,  singers,  men  with  electrical-machines,  appa- 
ratus for  testing  the  strength  of  the  lungs,  and  a  thousand 
other  similar  things,  flock  to  Virginia  City.  Of  evenings, 
when  the  torches  of  these  parties  of  peddlers,  showmen,  and 
quack  doctors  are  all  lighted  and  all  are  in  full  cry,  a  great 
fair  seems  to  be  under  headway  in  the  principal  street  of  the 
town — there  is  a  perfect  Babel  of  cries  and  harangues. 

The  man  with  the  electical-machine,  for  instance,  leads  off 
with: 

"  Who  is  the  next  gentleman  who  wishes  to  try  the  battery  ?  It  makes  the 
old  man  feel  young,  and  the  young  man  feel  strong.  Remember,  gentlemen, 
that  a  quarter  of  a  dollar  pays  the  bill.  Try  the  battery  !  Try  the  battery  1  < 
Bear  in  mind  that  there  can  be  nothing  applied  equal  to  it,  as  it  is  one  of 
nature's  own  remedies.  A  quarter  of  a  dollar  places  you  in  a  position  to  have 
your  nervous  system  electrified.  The  small  sum  of  one  quarter  of  a — Try  the 
battery,  sir  ?  The  small  sum  of  one  quarter  of  a  dollar  pays  the  whole  entire 


VOICES  OF  THE  PEOPLE.  393 

bill.  Who  is  the  next  man  to  try  the  battery  ?  Try  the  battery  !  Try  the 
battery  and  improve  your  health  while  you  have  the  opportunity.  Who  is 
the  next  man  that  wishes  to — Try  the  battery,  sir  ?  Try  the  battery  !  Try 
the  battery  !  Purifies  the  blood,  strengthens  the  nervous  system  ;  cures  head- 
aches, toothaches,  neuralgia,  and  all  diseases  of  the  nervous  system.  Can  be 
applied  to  a  child  six  months  old  as  well  as  to  a  full-grown  person.  Try  the 
battery !  Try  the  battery  !  Re-e-emember,  gentlemen,  that  the  sma-a-all 
and  tri-i-fling  sum  of  o-one  quarter  of  a  dollar  pays  the  whole  entire — Try 
the  battery,  sir  ?  Try  the  battery !  Try  the  battery  !  Can  regulate  the 
instrument  to  suit  all  constitutions.  Try  the  battery !  Re-e-member  that 
electricity  is  life.  It  is  what  you,  each  and  every  one  of  you,  require,  and  it 
is  utterly  impossible  for  you  to  live  without  it.  Try  the  battery !  Try  the 
battery!" 

The  soap-root  tooth-powder  man  next  starts  in  with  his 
little  talk: 

"  Gentlemen,  I  have  here  three  little  articles,  and  I  start  out  by  telling  you 
that  they  are  all  three  humbugs.  But  starting  out  with  this  proposition  that 
they  are  all  humbugs,  I  only  do  so  in  order  that  before  I  get  through  I  may 
[Try  the  battery !]  disprove  said  proposition  to  your  entire  satisfaction.  I 
will  first  show  you  a  little  article  called  [Try  the  battery  !  Try  the  battery  !] 
the  California  Soap-root  Tooth-powder.  Years  ago,  gentlemen,  about  75 
miles  northeast  of  Waterville,  in  the  State  of  California,  I  saw  the  Indians 
[Try  the  battery  !]  washing  their  clothes  with  this  root.  I  examined  it  and 
found  [One  quarter  of  a  dollar  pays  the  entire  bill !]  it  was  a  wonderful  pro- 
duction of  nature,  gentlemen.  I  found  that  it  [Makes  the  old  man  feel  young, 
and  the  young  man  feel  strong !]  grew  in  abundance  in  the  mountains.  I 
procured  a  quantity  of  it  and  took  it  to  [Try  the  battery,  sir  ?]  San  Francisco, 
when  I  began  to  [Try  the  battery !]  to  try  [Try  the  battery !]  experiments 
with  it  The  result  was,  gentlemen,  that  I  produced  this  beautiful  article 
which  [Purifies  the  blood,  strengthens  the  nervous  system,  and  improves  your 
general  health !]  instantly  removes  all  stains  from  the  teeth  and  [A  quarter  of 
a  dollar  pays  the  whole  entire  bill !]  leaves  the  breath  pure  and  sweet.  [Try 
the  battery !]" 

The  German  ballad-singer  now  comes  to  the  front : 
"  Lauterbach  hab'  i  mein'  Strumpf  verlorn, 
Ohne  Strumpf  geh'  i  not  hoam, 
Geh'  i  halt  weider  auf  Lauterbach, 
KauP  mir  an  Strumpf  zu  dem  oan. 

Tillee  leari,  oiko,  hi  oiko,  hi  oiko ! 
Tillee  oiko,  oiko.     Tilli  oi-i-oi-oiko ! 
Tillee  leari— [Try  the  battery  !]  hi  oiko  ! 
Z'  Lauterbach  hab'  i  mein  Herz  verlorn, 
Ohne  Herz  kann  i.not  [Try  the  battery  !]  leb'n." 
Clem  Berry  (Scipio  Africanus)  now  takes  the  field: 
"  Only  two  dollars,  gentlemen,  takes  you  to  Reno  by  this  splendid  Concord 


394:  HARD  CASH. 


coach,  landing  you  there  at  6  o'clock  in  the  evening,  when  you  may  [Try  the 
battery  !]  sleep  till  the  train  arrives  [Seventy-five  miles  northeast  of  Weaver- 
ville,  in  the  State  of  California,  where  I  saw  the  Indians — ]  from  the  East, 
when  you  [Try  the  battery  !]  get  aboard  [which  removes  all  stains  from  the 
teeth]  at  the  same  time  as  the  passengers  by  the  Virginia  and  Truckee  Rail- 
road [Tillee  oiko,'  hioiko  !]  and  [Try  the  battery  !]  are  perfectly  fresh — [Oi-i- 
oi-oiko !]" 

The  spotted  boy,  dwarf,  and  big  snakes  now  loom  up,  and 
we  hear  that : 

"  This  wonderful  spotted  boy  was  captured  in  the  wilds  of  Africa  [Seventy- 
five  miles  northeast  of  Weaverville — ]  with  his  strange  companion  [Lauter- 
bach],  the  huge  boa  constructor,  which  you  see  [Try  the  battery  !]  him  handle 
with  the  greatest  possible  [Hioiko !]  freedom  [without  causing  the  gums  to 
bleed].  And  here  is  the  wonderful  little  Fairy  Queen,  18  years  of  age,  and 
only  thirty-one  inches  in  height.  She  was  born  [Ohne  Strumpf]  in  Grand 
Rapids,  [Seventy-five  miles  northeast  of  Weaverville],  Wisconsin  ;  has  a  thor- 
ough education,  and  possesses  [A  splendid  Concord  coach !]  the  [Small  sum 
of  one  quarter  of  a  dollar]  graces  and  manners  becoming  a  [Lauterbach]  lady 
of  the  highest  [Hioiko  !]  standing  in  society." 

All  hands  round : 

"  Get  right  aboard  here,  now,  and  at  6  o'clock  I'll  land  you  at  Reno,  seventy- 
five  miles  northeast  of  Weaverville,  in  the  wilds  of  Africa,  where  I  saw  the 
Indian  thirty-one  inches  in  height,  born  at  Grand  Rapids,  try  the  battery  and 
take  all  th.e  stains  out  of  the  wonderful  spotted  boy,  who  only  eats  once  in 
four  months,  and  sheds  his  skin  twice  a  year.  Having  been  educated  in  a 
convent  in  Milwaukee,  geh  i  not  hoam  to  try  the  battery,  when  the  big  white 
snake  eats  the  little  girl  across  the  way  you'll  get  a  drink  for  a  bit,  and  see 
the  sea-lion  try  the  battery  free,  up  in  the  mountains  this  wonderful  Lauter- 
bach soap-root  climbs  a  tree  and  then  hangs  by  the  tail,  tilee  leari,  oiko  hi 
oiko !  which  purifies  the  blood,  strengthens  the  nerves  of  the  spotted  boy, 
cleanses  the  teeth,  and  does  not  fear  to  encounter  either  the  lion  or  the  tiger, 
being  able  to  regulate  the  instrument  to  suit  all  constitutions." 

In  Virginia  City,  as  well  as  in  all  the  towns  and  cities  on 
the  Pacific  Coast,  gold  and  silver  coin  is  the  only  money  in 
circulation.  There  are  now  in  circulation  at  least  two  Amer- 
ican coins  almost  unknown  in  other  parts  of  the  Union — the 
trade-dollar  and  the  twenty-five  cent  piece — as  their  coinage 
was  not  authorized  until  after  greenbacks  became  a  legal 
tender,  and  had  taken  possession  of  the  Atlantic  States  to  the 
exclusion  of  all  coin,  except  copper  and  nickle. 

The  trade-dollar  was  coined  for  our  trade  with  China  and 
Japan.  It  was  coined  expressly  to  supersede  the  Mexican 
dollar  in  the  countries  named.  It  contains  a  trifle  more  silver 


THE  JINGLE  OF  MONE  Y.  395 

than  the  Mexican  dollar,  and  the  Chinese  were  not  long  in 
ascertaining  this  fact.  Now  the  American  trade-dollar  is  in 
great  demand  both  in  China  and  Japan,  and  the  old  Mexican 
dollar  is  thrown  completely  into  the  shade.  The  Chinese  and 
Japanese  are  great  lovers  of  silver,  and  the  American  trade- 
dollar,  being  pure  silver,  is  preferred  by  them  to  the  coin  of 
any  other  nation.  The  end — the  final  fate— of  the  trade-dollar, 
however,  is  inglorious.  It  is  sent  to  India  by  the  Chinese  for 
the  purchase  of  opium.  In  India  they  are  sent  to  the  Calcutta 
mint  and  are  there  made  into  rupees,  stamped  with  the  value 
on  one  side  and  on  the  other  outlandish  heathen  characters. 
Thus  the  silver  of  the  big  bonanza  fills  the  opium-pipe  of  the 
Chinese  mandarin.  The  amount  of  American  silver  sent  to 
India  to  pay  for  opium  is  very  great. 

The  Chinese  in  Nevada  and  in  all  other  towns  on  the  Pacific 
Coast  industriously  gather  trade-dollars  which  they  send  to 
the  head  men  of  their  companies  in  San  Francisco,  by  whom 
they  are  shipped  to  China.  Persons  who  have  but  lately 
arrived  from  States  where  no  coin  is  seen,  are  astonished  at 
the  abundance  of  silver  in  Virginia  City,  and  delighted  to  be 
in  a  place  where  they  may  once  again  hear  the  almost  forgot- 
ten jingle  of  gold  and  silver;  though  I  once  heard  a  New 
York  lady  say :  "  I  never  saw  such  a  place.  I  hear  nothing 
but  the  jingle  of  money  from  one  end  .of  the  town  to  the  other. 
The  people  all  go  about  jingling  their  money  as  though  on 
purpose  to  show  that  they  are  able  to  pay  their  way ! " 

To  the  impecunious  new  arrivals — the  weary  and  tattered 
immigrants — this  jingling  of  coin  must  be  still*  more  aggra- 
vating. 

A  gentleman  in  Virginia  City  one  day  told  a  story  about 
slipping  a  silver  half-dollar  into  the  gaping  coat  pocket  of  a 
grasshopper  sufferer  who  was  gazing  hungrily  in  at  the  win- 
dow of  a  restaurant.  The  man  continued  looking  at  the  good 
things  displayed  in  the  window  for  some  time,  devouring  them 
in  imagination,  then,  heaving  a  sigh,  turned  away.  As  he 
was  moving  off,  however,  he  carelessly,  and  through  force  of 
habit,  as  it  we're,  put  his  hand  into  his  pocket.  Bringing 
forth  the  silver  coin  the  instant  his  hand  came  in  contact  with 
it,  the  fellow  gazed  upon  it  with  a  face  which  wore  a  look  of 


396  THE  GRASSHOPPER  MAN. 

astonishment  comical  to  behold.  Finally  he  seemed  to  con- 
clude that  it  was  all  right,  the  Lord  had  sent  it,  when  he 
retraced  his  steps  to  the  restaurant  and  soon  was  seated  before 
that  which  was  probably  the  first  square  meal  he  had  faced  in 
some  days. 

A  Comstocker,  who  heard  this  story  told,  relates  that  he 
concluded  he  would  experiment  a  little  in  the  same  direction. 
If  half  a  dollar  had  power  to  so  astound  an  impecunious 
immigrant,  he  would  try  the  effect  of  a  trade-dollar.  Procur- 
ing a  bright,  new  trade-dollar,  he  sallied  forth  in  search  of  a 
subject.  He  had  not  travelled  far  until  he  saw  before  him  a 
young  man  of  most  rueful  countenance — an  undoubted  grass- 
hopper sufferer.  The  man  was  leaning  against  a  lamp-post 
on  a  street  corner,  his  face  elongated,  his  mouth  standing 
negligently  open,  and  his  half-closed  eyes  gazing  wearily  up 
among  the  fleecy  clouds,  as  though  he  were  wishing  himself 
dead  and  taking  his  ease  as  an  angel,  far  away  in  the  realms 
above. 

The  Comstocker  saw  that  here  was  his  man,  and,  passing 
near  the  dreamer,  slily  slid  the  trade-dollar  into  the  capacious 
pocket  of  his  butternut  coat,  then  taking  up  a  position  a  few 
paces  distant,  awaited  developments.  He  had  not  long  to 
wait.  Soon,  in  shifting  his  position,  the  grasshopper  man 
mechanically  placed  his  hand  in  his  pocket,  and,  as  was  to  be 
seen  by  the  general  awakening  of  his  features,  was  not  a  little 
surprised  to  find  something  where  he  had  supposed  there  was 
nothing.  When  he  brought  out  the  big  bright  dollar,  his 
eyes  almost  started  from  their  sockets,  and  he  looked  as 
though  about  to  fall  down  in  a  fit  of  some  kind.  However, 
after  a  gasp  or  two  he  appeared  to  recover  somewhat,  and 
glancing  curiously,  and  in  a  bewildered  sort  of  way,  at  all 
standing  near  him,  started  across  the  street,  carefully  fobbing 
the  dollar  as  he  went. 

By  the  time  he  had  gone  half  across  the  street,  he  appeared 
to  change  his  mind.  After  gazing  back  and  scratching  his 
head  for  half  a  minute,  he  returned  to  the  post  and  taking  up 
his  old  position,  spread  open  the  pocket  of  his  coat  to  its 
fullest  extent.  He  had  concluded  to  set  it  again. 


CHAPTER  LIII. 

HOW    FORTUNES   ARE    MADE    AND   LOST. 

DURING  the  prevalence  of  a  big  stock  excitement,  times  are 
lively  along  the  Comstock  range.     Virginia   City   then 
hums  like  a  Brobdignagian  beehive.     All  who  failed  to 
make  fortunes  on  the  occasion  of  previous  excitements  in  stocks 
are  going  to  do  better  this  time.     They  have  seen   how  these 
things  work,  and  this  time  are  going  to  sell  when  they  can  do  so 
at  a  fair  profit.     They  don't  want  the  last  cent-:  they  will  give 
some  one  else  a  chance  to  make  something. 

This  is  the  way  they  talk  at  the  start.  As  soon  as  there  is  a 
marked  advance  in  stocks,  however,  they  will  be  heard  to  say : 
"As  soon  as  I  can  double  my  money  I  am  going  to  sell."  In 
three  days  from  the  time  of  their  making  this  assertion,  stocks 
have  taken  such  a  "jump  "  that  they  could  sell  and  double  or 
more  than  double  their  money.  Everybody  is  saying,  however, 
that  they  are  not  selling  for  half  what  they  are  worth  ;  that  they 
will  sell  for  twice  or  three  times  present  prices  before  the  end  of 
another  month. 

The  men  who  were  intending  to  sell  whenever  they  could 
double  their  money  cannot  think  of  doing  anything  of  the  kind 
as  things  are  now  looking.  Instead  of  selling  they  become 
excited,  put  up  their  stocks  (which  they  had  probably  bought 
and  paid  for  "  out  and  out  ")  as  a  "  margin,"  then  put  in  all  the 
money  they  can  raise  besides,  and  buy  as  many  shares  of  their 
favorite  stocks  as  they  can  in  any  way  manage  to  secure.  Stocks 
still  go  up,  and  each  day  these  dabblers  will  be  found  counting 
their  profits.  They  have  invested  largely  in  the  low-priced 
stocks  of  "  outside  mines  " — mines  in  which  nothing  of  value  has 

397 


398  "BULLS"  AND  "BEARS? 

yet  been  found,  but  mines  in  which,  all  are  saying,  grand  devel- 
opments are  liable  to  be  made  at  any  time — mines,  in  short, 
which  in  dull  times  are  generally  designated  as  "wild-cat." 
The  masses — the  servant  girls,  chamber-maids,  cooks,  hostlers, 
washerwoman,  preachers,  teachers,  hackmen  and  draymen — are 
wildly  and  blindly  buying  these  low-priced  stocks,  and  from  day 
to  day  they  are  going  up  "  with  a  rush,"  and  everybody  is  get- 
ting rich. 

Our  men  who  only  "  went  in  "  to  make  a  fair  profit,  now  tell 
you  that  they  made  yesterday  $10,000;  to-day  they  have  made 
$15,000,  and  in  a  week  or  two  they  will  say  that  they  are  worth 
a  quarter  of  a  million,  half  a  million  or  a  million  of  dollars. 
But  they  are  not  going  to  sell  yet :  no,  indeed — the  rise  has  only 
commenced.  Pretty  soon  stocks  fall  off  a  little.  Never  mind, 
to-morrow  they  will  do  better.  To-morrow  they  are  still  a 
"little  off,"  as  is  said  when  stocks  are  going  down.  The  next 
day  they  are  rather  "  soft,"  which  is  the  same  thing  as  a  "  little 
off."  However,  that  is  all  right.  Our  dealers — amateur  specu- 
lators—  have  some  points,  given  them  by  a  friend  who  is  on  the 
inside.  A  development  is  about  to  be  made  in  a  favorite  mine. 
The  "  bears  "  are  trying  to  break  the  stock ;  but  they  can't  do 
it ;  no,  sir ! — impossible.  Too  much  merit  in  the  mines  at  this 
time.  All  will  be  up  and  "  booming  "  in  a  day  or  two,  Next 
time  you  shall  see  them  go  higher  than  they  have  yet  been  seen. 

Our  men  who  started  in  to  make  a  fair  profit  might  yet  sell 
and  double  their  money — much  more  than  double  it — but  they 
are  not  going  to  do  anything  of  the  kind.  They  are  going  to 
wait  till  "things  take  a  turn."  The  "bulls"  will  soon  make  a 
grand  rally,  and  when  things  go  up  again  our  men  will  sell. 
They  admit  that  they  should  have  sold  when  their  stocks  were 
all  up  before,  but,  never  mind  !  they  will  go  to  the  same  figures 
again  in  less  than  a  fortnight,  when  they  will  be  sure  to  sell. 

There  does  come  a  "  spurt,"  and  for  a  day  or  two  there  is  a 
cheering  improvement  in  prices  along  the  whole  line.  Faces 
brighten  and  everybody  talks  of  all  stocks  going  higher  than  ever. 

All  at  once  everything  is  again  "  soft ;  "  the  next  day  "  softer," 
and  the  next  decidedly  "  off."  It  is  then  said  that  some  one  in 
the  "  bear  "  interest  has  been  telegraphing  to  the  "  Bay  "  (San 
Francisco)  a  pack  of  lies  about  the  mines,  and  the  "  bears " 


•    DOINGS  OF  THE  BROKERS.  399 

"  bek>w  "  (at  San  Francisco)  have  made  use  of  these  lies  to  get 
up  a  "  scare."  Never  mind !  the  scare  will  be  over  in  a  day  or 
two. 

But  stocks  still  go  down,  Then  it  is  said  that  some  big 
dealer  is  "  unloading  "  and  there  is  talk  of  a  "  crash."  Still  our 
men  who  started  in  but  to  make  a  "  fair  profit "  do  not  feel  like 
taking  thousands,  when  they  might  a  short  time  before  have 
taken  tens  of  thousands  of  dollars.  They  still  hold  on,  saying 
that  even  though  one  or  two  big  dealers  are  unloading,  the  big 
men  among  the  bulls  will  "stand  in  "  and  take  all  the  stocks 
that  are  offered.  Also,  they  will  have  some  points  from  a  friend 
"  on  the  inside  "  and  developments  are  about  to  be  made  in  one 
or  two  of  the  mines  that  will  make  all  who  have  sold  "  very  sick  " 
particularly  those  bloodless  demons  who  have  "  sold  short." 
The  "  shorts  "  will  have  a  merry  time  of  it  when  they  come  to 
"  fill." 

Thus  matters  stand,  when  suddenly  there  comes  what  looks, 
very  much  like  the  beginning  of  a  "  crash."  The  "  bears  "  are  all 
diligently  crying,  "  stand  from  under."  Many  persons  become 
frightened,  and  throw  their  stocks  upon  the  market.  Down  go 
prices  and  soon  "soft"  is  no  name  for  it.  The  masses — the 
tinker  and  tailor,  the  preacher  and  the  teacher,  the  hostler  and 
the  waiter — rush  in  to  try  to  "  save  themselves  "  and  there  is 
seen  a  grand  and  unmistakeable  crash.  Brokers  are  calling  on 
all  sides  for  "  margins  "  to  be  "  made  good,"  and  men  are  rush- 
ing about  trying  to  raise  money  to  "  put  up  "  in  order  to  prevent 
their  stocks  being  sold  at  less  than  cost. 

They  perhaps  raise  the  money  required,  and  for  a  few  days 
breathe  again,  when  there  is  a  further  decline  in  stocks,  and  the 
brokers  are  again  sending  notes  to  their  customers  telling  them 
that  if  they  do  not  put  up  more  money  they  will  be  sold  out. 
Sooner  or  later  there  comes  a  time  when  the  customer  can  raise 
no  more  money,  and  his  stocks  are  thrown  into  the  market  by 
the  broker — in  whose  hands  they  remain — and  are  sold.  Thus 
ends  the  grand  speculation. 

Our  men,  who  at  the  start  were  resolved  to  be  content  with  a 
fair  profit  are  generally  found  among  the  number  of  those  who 
are  sold  out,  when  they  are  heard  to  say  that  if  they  ever  have 
another  such  chance  to  make  money  they  will  not  hold  on  for 


400  ON  A  MARGIN. 


the  last  cent.  They  have  said  the  same  thing  year  after  year 
ever  since  the  opening  of  the  Comstock  mines.  But  whenever 
there  is  a  grand  upward  movement  in  stocks  they  never  fail  to 
become  excited  and  try  to  buy  about  ten  times  as  much  stock  as 
they  can  pay  for.  In  this  way  they  lose  all  except  what  they 
may  have  happened  to  purchase  at  a  fair  price  in  a  mine  of  real 
merit. 

Persons  who  purchase  mining-stocks  on  a  "  margin "  pay 
their  broker,  as  a  rule,  one-half  the  market  value  of  the  stock 
so"  bought.  The  other  half  is  advanced  by 'the  broker,  the 
customer  paying  him  interest  on  the  amount  at  the  rate  of  two 
per  cent,  per  month.  The  broker  also  receives  one  per  cent 
commission  on  all  sales  and  purchases  made  for  the  customer. 
Stocks  are  nearly  always  bought  and  sold  in  the  San  Francisco 
Stock  Board,  the  broker  in  Virginia  City  telegraphing  to  his 
agent  "  at  the  Bay  "  to  buy  or  sell  such  a  number  of  shares  of  a 
certain  stock,  and  the  bill  for  this  telegraphing  is  paid  by  the 
customer. 

In  case  of  a  decline  in  the  price  of  the  stock  purchased,  the 
customer  must  pay  in  to  the  broker  enough  money  to  make  him 
secure  for  the  amount  he  has  advanced,  taking  into  account  the 
current  price  of  the  stock.  Should  there  be  a  furthur  and  con- 
tinued decline,  the  customer  must  continue  to  put  up  money,  in 
order  to  make  his  broker  safe.  If  he  is  unable  to  do  this  his 
broker  sells  him  out — /.  e.  takes  care  of  "number  one." 

From  this  it  will  be  seen  that  the  broker  who  does  a  strictly 
commission  business —  who  is  not  himself  a  dabbler  in  stocks — 
makes  a  very  soft  thing  out  of  it.  Sometimes,  however,  stocks 
drop  so  rapidly  that  the  broker  cannot  sell  in  time  to  save  him- 
self. This  is  generally  when  the  customer  has  been  allowed  to 
buy  stock  on  the  presumed  value  of  the  stocks  he  already  has 
in  the  hands  of  his  broker,  putting  up  stocks  that  have  advanced 
at  their  current  value  as  a  margin  on  which  to  purchase  still 
other  stocks,  and  so  running  his  purchases  up  on  the  compound- 
interest  principle. 

When  a  broker  calls  for  money  to  make  margins  good,  "  mud  " 
is  the  slang  word  used  among  dealers  in  stocks,  by  which  to 
designate  the  money  so  demanded.  One  frequently  hears  a  man 
who  is  a  dabbler  in  stocks  cursing  his  luck,  the  condition  of  the 


"PUSSY-CAT  WILDE"  AND  "BOB  TAILS."  401 

market,  and  all  else,  concluding  with :  "  And  here  is  my  broker 
calling  for  more  mud  !  "  When  the  reports  of  the  sales  of  stocks 
are  received  from  San  Francisco  and  prices  are  a  "  little  off," 
one  hears  some  person  who  has  read  the  news  sing  out :  "  More 
mud,  boys !  " 

The  demand  for  "  mud  "  often  causes  very  long  faces  to  be  seen 
on  the  streets — to  many  it  means  ruin.  Yet  men  will  continue 
to  buy  on  margins,  taking  all  the  chances,  and  stretching  what 
ready-money  they  have  as  far  as  the  broker  will  allow  them  to 
go.  Provided  men  buy  on  a  margin  at  a  time  when  stocks  are 
very  low  and  then  shortly  after  comes  a  grand  excitement,  they 
are  liable  to  make  a  little  fortune  with  a  very  small  amount  of 
capital,  but  to  buy  in  this  way  at  a  time  when  everything  is 
high  is  dangerous  business  and  the  demands  for  "  mud  "  are 
likely  to  be  very  numerous. 

The  following  letter  received  in  Virginia  City,  from  a  French- 
man, in  San  Francisco,  shows  how  he  first  became  acquainted 
with  this  dreadful  word,  "  mud  "  and  how  he  relished  the  thing 
itself: 

SAN  FRANCISCO,  CAL.  April  u  1875. 

Monsieur — By  zee  advice  of  one  goot  friend  who  informed  me  zat  he  be  on 
zee  inside,  and  who  make  for  me  zee  negoziazione,  I  have  procure  some 
time  past  on  what  you  call  "  on  zee  time,"  many  share  of  zee  Bobtaile.  Zee 
prix  zat  time  be  fortee  dollaire  on  monnie  d'or  des  Etats-Unis ;  bote  I  buy 
on  zee  time  and  not  pay  zee  prix.  My  friend  on  zee  insides  tell  me  Bobtaile 
one  ver  fine  bargain  for  fortee  dollaire.  Ah  ha  !  Bobtaile  one  ver  fine  com- 
pagnie  !  plenty  mashine  pour  work  ;  grand  nombre  d'employes  ;  Superinten- 
dent un  salaire  plus  grand,  je  suppose  !  all  ting  ver  fine.  Me  buy  ?  Vraiment, 
out  I  He — mine  friend  who  repose  on  zee  insides — express  himself  of  zee 
mine  wis  moche  enthousiasme.  Zee  mine  be  one  merveille  de  la  nature  ;  zee 
works,  un  chef-d'oeuvre  de  1'art  ! "  Je  suppose  to  purchase  be  une  chance 
rare.  I  purchase,  but  now,  pretty  soon — le  diable  !  Zee  brokaire  man  use 
zee  expression  to  me,  as  follows  :  "  More  mud."  At  zee  first  I  not  ver  well 
comprehend.  Sans  doubte  it  be  une  expression,  ver  mysterieuse — zis  exclam- 
ation :  "More  mud."  So  many  five,  seex  time  have  he,  zee  brokaire, 
desire  of  me  some  leetle  more  mud,  zat  now  I  mus  make  one  grand  sacrifice 
pecuniaire.  It  be  now  become  scandaleuse  !  Parbleu,  c'est  horrible,  cette 
"  mud  ! ''  For  me  to  communicate  wis  my  brokaire — bah  !  it  was  one  grand 
plaiser,  Of  de  mine,  des  minerals  I  be  plenty  sick.  Under  de  circonstances 
I  read  no  more  wis  enthousiasme  of — "  Les  compagnie's  certificat  d'incorpor- 
ation  ; "  "  la  Pussy  Cat  Wilde,  objet :  Operations  dans  1'Etat  de  Nevada,  etc." 
— "  Les  directeurs  sont :  Bill  Tubb,  Sam  Hobb,  Jack  Dobb,  etc."  "  Capital 


402  GOING  ur  I 


social,  $45,800,000,002 ;  divise  en  56,000,000,000,000,000  actions.  Vraiment 
oui ! — "  More  mud  !  "  Pretty  soon  you  hear  one  crash  financial, — I  gone  bust 
— me  !  No  more  do  I  eat  me  my  dennaire  a  de  la  restaurant  du  Poodle  Dog, 
rue  Duponte,  but  wis  circomspection  admirable  I  betake  me  to  la  cote  de 
Barbaric,  to  zee  Hell  Kitchen — zee  cuisine  de  1'enfer.  Parole  d'honneur 
monsieur,  I  be  ver  moche  perplex  wis  zee  stoke  prices,  He  viggle  up,  he 
viggle  down  all  zee  time.  Vill  you  have  zee  complaisance  to  inform  me  how 
soon  he  vill  viggle  high  up  and  remain  to  pass  some  time  up  dare?  *  Mud  ! " 
le  diable  ! — zee  word  have  for  me  un  signification  sardonique  ! 

Your  tres-humble  and  tres-obeissant  servant, 

PIERRE  EDOUARD  OUDIN. 

In  the  winter  of  1874-75,  owing  to  the  wonderful  develop- 
ments made  in  the  Consolidated  Virginia  and  California  mines, 
there  was  a  grand  stock  excitement  throughout  the  towns  of  the 
Pacific  Coast.  San  Francisco  and  Virginia  City,  however,  were 
the  two  great  centres  of  this  excitement.  As  the  vast  and 
astonishingly  rich  deposits  of  ore  in  the  California  mine  began  to 
be  drifted  into  and  opened  to  view,  the  stock  of  the  company 
rapidly  and  steadily  advanced  from  about  fifty  dollars  per  share 
to  nearly  one  thousand  dollars.  Consolidated  Virginia  stock 
advanced  in  about  the  same  ratio,  as  in  the  mine  of  that  com- 
pany the  width  and  richness  of  the  ore  was  far  beyond  anything 
that  had  ever  before  been  seen  on  the  Comstock  lode.  In  the 
Ophir  mine,  the  next  north  of  the  California,  large  and  rich 
bodies  of  ore  were  being  opened,  and  the  stock  of  that  company 
advanced  with  almost  bewildering  rapidity.  Persons  who 
happened  to  have  twenty,  fifty,  or  one  hundred  shares  in  either 
of  these  mines  suddenly  found  themselves  rich.  The  invest- 
ment of  a  few  hundreds  of  dollars  had  brought  them  thousands, 
and  the  investments  of  thousands  brought  them  tens  of  thousands 
of  dollars. 

The  great  strike  in  the  "bonanza  "  mines  started  up  the  stocks 
of  all  the  adjoining  mines,  and,  indeed,  of  all  the  mines  along  the 
Comstock  range.  The  stock  of  mines  that  were  rich  in  "  great 
expectations  "  only  were  as  eagerly  sought  for  and  as  briskly 
dealt  in,  as  were  those  in  which  ore  was  already  being  extracted, 
for  many  said  :  "  It  is  just  as  well  for  us  to  double  our  money 
in  a  stock  that  costs  but  one  or  two  dollars  per  share  as  in  stocks 
that  cost  from  one  to  five  hundred  dollars."  And  many  did 
double  and  more  than  double  their  money  in  such  stocks ; 


DEALERS  AND  DABBLERS.  403 

indeed,  in  some  instances  they  sold  for  five  or  ten  times  what 
their  stocks  cost  them. 

Every  day  there  is  a  morning  and  an  afternoon  session  of  the 
San  Francisco  Stock  Board,  and  the  reports  of  the  sales  are 
telegraphed  to  Virginia  City,  Gold  Hill  and  other  Nevada  towns 
as  fast  as  the  stocks  are  called.  Thus,  as  soon  as  the  Stock 
Board  is  in  session  and  business  begins,  reports  of  sales  begin  to 
arrive  in  Virginia  City  and  are  placed  in  the  windows  or  on  the 
bulletin-boards  of  the  various  stock-brokers  of  the  town,  where 
all  interested  may  see  them.  Therefore  during  a  big  stock 
excitement  the  bulletin-boards  are  the  centres  about  which  are 
seen  large  crowds  of  anxious  dealers — and  nearly  everybody  in 
the  city  dabbles  more  or  less  in  stocks,  women  as  well  as  men. 

On  very  critical  occasions,  either  when  stocks  are  rapidly 
rushing  or  when  they  are  rapidly  "  tumbling,"  then  is  a  grand 
charge  made  upon  all  the  bulletin-boards  as  soon  as  it  is  known 
that  the  reports  have  arrived.  Dry-goods  clerks — yardstick  in 
hand  and  scissors  peeping  from  vest-pocket — come  running  out 
bare-headed  and  bald-headed  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  bulletin ; 
bar-keepers  in  their  white  aprons  come  ;•  bare-headed,  bare- 
armed,  and  white-aproned  butchers  smelling  of  blood,  come; 
blacksmiths,  in  leather  aprons  and  hammer  in  hand,  flour-dusted 
bakers,  cooks  in  paper  caps  cobblers,  tinkers,  and  tailors  all 
come  to  learn  the  best  and  the  worst.  The  miner  on  his  way  to 
or  from  work,  carrying  his  dinner-pail  and  candlestick,  halts  for 
a  moment  to  see  how  fares  his  favorite  stodk,  the  teamster  stops 
his  long  string  of  mules  opposite  one  of  the  centres  of  attraction 
and,  thrusting  his  "  black  snake  "  under  the  housing  of  his 
saddle-mule,  marches  to  the  board  to  read  his  fate.  Ladies 
linger  as  they  pass  the  groups  at  the  bulletin-boards  and  try  to 
catch  some  word  of  hope,  or  ensconce  themselves  in  the  nearest 
shops,  and  hence  send  messenger-lads  to  bring  tidings  of  their 
favorite  gamble. 

Even  the  Chinese  dabble  in  stocks.  Some  of  these  are  able 
to  read  the  reports  for  themselves,  while  others  ask  white  men 
to  tell  them  the  price  of  the  stocks  in  which  they  are  dealing. 
There  was  an  old  fellow  who,  for  a  long  time  was  dealing  in  the 
stocks  of  the  Belcher  and  the  Segregated  Belcher  mines.  The 
Belcher  he  called  the  "big  Belch,"  and  the  Segregated  Belcher 


404  SPECULA  TION. 


the  "  little  Belch."  Crowding  his  way  up  to  a  bulletin-board  he 
would  say  to  some  by-stander :  "  How  much-ee  to-day  catch-ee 
big  Belch  ?  "  Being  told,  and  finding  the  stock  up,  he  would 
say :  "  Bully  for  big  Belch  !  " 

Next  he  would  ask :  "  How  much-ee  to  day  catch-ee  little 
Belch  ?  " 

Finding  that  stock  a  "little  off"  he  would  say: 

"  Belly  bad  !  belly  bad !  Little  Belch  too  much-ee  all  time, 
bust  me  up !  " 

In  passing  the  bulletin-boards  one  catches  scraps  of  conver- 
sation like  the  following :  "  Didn't  I  tell  you  so  ?  I  have  said 
so  all  the  time."  "  I  saw  a  man  this  morning  who  is  thoroughly 
reliable,  and  he  says  " — "  Yes,  it  may  be  a  buy,  but,  confound  it, 
I  get  sold  so  often !  " — "  I  knew  they  would  all  be  up  to-day  " — 
"  Now  you  raise  the  money ;  I  tell  you  it  is  just  as  I  say.  I  have 
points  that  " — "  Dealing  in  stocks  with  these  rings  is  just  like 
playing  poker  with  a  man  who  knows  both  hands  " — "  They  have 
it  awful  in  the  " — "  They  haven't  got  an  ounce  afore  in  the — "  I 
shan't  sell  yet.  Stocks  have  only  begun  to  go  up."  "I  wish  I 
had  sold  yesterday."  "Well  I  have  laid  up  my  treasures  above, 
where  the  bulls  and  bears  can  never  come." — The  last  speaker 
is  generally  a  newspaper  reporter  or  some  other  such  holy  person, 
who  is  seen  standing  aloof  from  the  ungodly  worshippers  at  the 
shrine  of  Mammon. 

The  amount  of  "  stock  talk  "  heard  in  every  saloon,  public- 
house  and  shop,  and  on  every  street,  is  at  times  enough  to 
render  an  easy-going  Granger  from  one  of  the  eastern  or  middle 
States,  to  whom  it  is  all  Greek  a  raving  maniac  or  a  drivelling 
idiot.  The  sidewalks  on  C  street,  the  principal  business  street 
street  of  Virginia  City,  are  generally  so  thronged  that  it  is  a  diffi- 
cult matter  to  pass  along  them,  except  at  the  same  slow  pace  at 
which  the  mass  of  the  pedestrians  is  moving;  therefore  at  times 
when  there  is  an  excitement  in  regard  to  stocks  there  are  fre- 
quent blockades  in  front  of  the  offices  of  the  brokers,  and  persons 
wishing  to  pass  are  obliged  to  take  to  the  streets.  At  times  the 
police  are  obliged  to  clear  passages  through  the  throngs,  as  men 
become  so  interested  in  their  stocks  as  to  have  neither  eyes 
nor  ears  for  anything  else,  and  ladies  and  children  find  them- 
selves unable  to  pass. 


CHAPTER  LIV. 

CURIOUS  SPECULATIONS    IN   STOCK. 

WHEN  there  is  a  grand  upward  movement  in  stocks, 
and  all   is  excitement  among  the  dealers,  from  the 
big  operator  worth  millions,  down  to  the  little  curb- 
stone broker  whose  fortune  is  yet  to  be  made,  early  and 
reliable  information  in  regard  to  what  is  going  on  in  the 
lower-levels  is  valuable  and  is  always  in  demand. 

On  the  Comstock  there  is  a  class  of  men,  for  whom  there  is 
no  distinctive  name,  whose  business  it  is  to  find  out  all  that 
can  in  any  way  be  learned  in  regard  to  the  condition  of  the 
mines,  and  report  the  same  to  the  dealers  in  stocks  by  whom 
they  are  employed.  These  mining  reporters,  they  might  be 
called — as  a  class,  are  shrewd  and  eternally  vigilant.  They 
must  always  keep  their  employers,  who  are  generally  in  San 
Francisco,  well  informed  in  regard  to  the  condition  of  the 
Comstock  mines  at  all  times  when  a  "strike  "is  anticipated 
or  reported  in  any  particular  mine ;  it  is  expected  of  them,  by 
hook  or  by  crook,  to  ascertain  exactly  in  what  part  of  the 
mine  it  was  made  or  is  about  to  be  made.  If  made  at  all,  they 
are  to  find  out  the  value  of  the  strike,  probable  extent  of  the 
body  of  ore  found,  its  richness,  direction,  and  many  other 
things  not  easily  ascertained. 

When  a  strike  is  reported  made  in  a  mine  and  all  its  gates 
and  doors  are  closed,  the  strictest  secresy  enjoined  on  all  the 
workmen,  and  admittance  refused  to  all  "  outsiders,"  then  is 
the  time  for  the  mining  reporter  to  display  his  genius  or  give 
up  his  trade.  By  bribing  workmen  or  by  getting  a  man  of 
his  own  into  the  mine  to  work,  or  in  some  other  way  he  must 
find  out  what  he  wants  to  know. 
23  405 


406  *  BRIGHT  IDEA. 


On  one  occasion  a  rich  strike  was  reported  in  a  leading 
mine.  Every  avenue  to  the  lower-levels  was  closed  against 
the  outside  world.  The  superintendent  was  exceedingly  close- 
mouthed  and  mysterious ;  the  miners  were  reticent  and  un- 
bribable— nothing  could  be  learned  in  regard  to  the  strike, 
though  strike  there  was,  as  all  felt  convinced.  The  gatherers 
of  mining  news  scouted  about  the  surface  works,  watching 
everything  and  making  mental  notes  of  all  that  occurred 
which  appeared  to  be  indicative  of  a  rich  body  of  ore  below. 
Nothing,  however,  of  the  slightest  value  could  be  bored, 
pumped,  or  gouged  out  of  anybody  or  anything,  and  finally 
all  the  newsgatherers  but  one  drew  off  and  gave  it  up  as  a 
bad  job.  One  man  still  lingered,  day  after  day,  all  eyes  and 
ears.  The  superintendent  came  and  went,  and  he  was  none 
the  wiser  for  having  seen  him. 

At  last  a  bright  idea  struck  him.  The  superintendent  came 
to  the  mine,  and,  as  usual,  went  down  into  the  lower-levels. 
Our  man  remained  loitering  about  the  works  until  he  came 
out — lingered  until  he  had  seen  him  take  off  and  throw  aside 
his  muddy  boots,  his  clay-besmeared  overalls  and  shirt,  and 
till  he  had  finally  taken  himself  off.  Watching  his  chance, 
the  hungry  reporter  of  mining  news  darted  into  the  dressing- 
room,  and  with  his  jack-knife  scraped  from  the  boots,  overalls, 
felt  hat,  shirt,  and  everything,  all  the  mud,  clay,  and  earth 
sticking  to  them.  Of  this  and  the  loose  particles  of  ore  found 
in  the  pockets  of  the  shirt,  he  made  a  large  ball,  which  was 
composed  of  a  general  average  of  the  bottom,  top  and  sides 
of  the  drift  run  into  the  new  deposit;  he  had  a  little  of 
everything  the  superintendent  had  touched,  and  this  ball  he 
had  carefully  assayed.  By  the  result  obtained  he  became 
satisfied  that  a  strike  of  extraordinary  richness  had  been  made. 
He  immediately  telegraphed  to  his  employers  in  San  Francisco 
to  buy  all  of  the  stock  they  could  get.  They  bought  largely, 
and  made  an  immense  profit,  as  the  stock  soon  went  up  from 
a  few  dollars  to  high  in  the  hundreds. 

At  the  time  of  the  big  excitement  in  1875,  a  fine,  motherly- 
looking  old  lady  came  up  to  Virginia  City  from  Reno  to  see 
about  the  "big  bonanza."  She  had  in  her  pocket  twenty 
shares  of  California  stock  which  she  had  bought  when  it  was 


UNCLE  BILLY'S  "CRANK  TURNING."  4Q7 

selling  at  $30.  At  the  time  she  made  her  trip  to  Virginia  the 
stock  was  selling  for  over  $600  per  share.  Her  son  accompa- 
nied her  on  her  trip  of  inspection.  Leaving  the  cars  at  the 
depot,  mother  and  son  walked  down  the  railroad-track  to  a 
point  where  could  be  obtained  a  good  view  of  the  Consoli- 
dated Virginia  hoisting-works,  the  big  mill  of  that  company 
and  of  the  Ophir  works.  Some  men  of  whom  they  inquired 
told  them  that  the  ground  they  saw  between  the  Ophir  and 
the  Consolidated  Virginia,  was  that  of  the  California  Com- 
pany, and  was  principally  bonanza. 

On  hearing  this,  the  good  old  lady  wiped  her  spectacles, 
placed  them  astride  of  her  venerable  nose,  threw  back  her 
head,  and  long  and  carefully  surveyed  the  lay  of  the  land 
between  the  two  sets  of  hoisting-works.  This  done,  she  took 
off  and  folded  up  her  glasses,  put  them  into  their  case,  and 
carefully  deposited  them  in  her  capacious  pocket.  She  then 
brought  forth  her  reticule,  opened  it,  took  out  her  stock, 
found  it  all  right,  replaced  it,  and  drew  the  string  as  tight  as 
her  trembling  fingers  would  allow  of  her  doing.  She  then 
said  to  her  son :  "  George,  give  me  your  arm.  Let  us  go 
home — it  will  go  to  $1,000." 

Nat  Codrington  was  one  of  the  unlucky  speculators.  He 
was  always  complaining  about  William  Sharon,  the  great 
mining  millionaire.  Whenever  things  went  wrong  with  Nat, 
"Uncle  Billy" — as  Nat  affectionately  called  Mr.  Sharon — was 
at  the  bottom  of  the  business.  When  Nat  bought  stock  it  was 
sure  to  go  down  at  once,  then  he  would  say:  "That's  Uncle 
Billy,  he's  turning  the  crank  again!"  As  soon  as  Nat  sold 
short  on  a  stock,  up  it  would  go,  and  he  would  say :  "  Well, 
Uncle  Billy's  at  it  again — grindin'  of  'em  the  other  way  this 
time!" 

As  long  as  he  could,  Nat  responded  to  the  calls  for  "mud," 
but  his  pile  of  filthy  lucre  was  not  like  the  widow's  cruse  of 
oil,  and  at  last  it  became  a  thing  of  the  past,  and  Nat  ceased 
to  take  even  his  former  feeble  interest  in  "  Uncle  Billy's  " 
crank-turning. 

The  last  seen  of  Nat  he  was  off  for  California.  The  iron 
had  entered  his  soul  and  he  had  reached  the  seventh  level  of 
despair.  No  more  mining — no  more  mud-eating  stocks  for 


408  OLD  JOE  'S  DISASTER. 

him.  "  Yes,"  said  Nat,  "  I'm  off  for  the  pastoral  regions,  where 
the  woodbine  twineth  and  the  dissolute  grasshopper  sitteth  on 
the  mullin  stalk  and  assiduously  raspeth  his  stridulous  fiddle." 

Old  Joe  Staker  is  one  of  a  class  to  be  found  both  along  the 
line  of  the  Comstock  and  in  San  Francisco,  on  those  streets 
where  speculators  in  stocks  most  do  congregate.  Old  Joe 
probably  never  owned  the  shadow  of  a  share  in  any  mine  on 
the  Comstock  lode,  yet  he  is  always  in  the  thick  of  every 
excitement,  and  claims  to  have  shares  in  all  the  big  mines. 

In  1875,  Old  Joe  was  in  his  element.  His  is  a  very  sympa- 
thetic nature,  and  when  California  was  booming  up  toward 
$1,000  per  share,  Old  Joe  was  rushing  about,  ever  in  the  midst 
of  the  mttee — was  ever  with  those  who  were  drinking  and 
rejoicing. 

Later  in  the  season,  when  there  had  been  a  crash  along  the 
whole  line — when  all  stocks,  good,  bad,  and  indifferent,  "  tum- 
bled"— Old  Joe  was  to  be  found  in  the  midst  of  the  mourners, 
drowning  his  sorrows  at  every  opportunity.  He  did  not, 
however,  at  all  times  find  those  who  were  losing  their  thou- 
sands each  hour  by  the  fall  so  liberal  as  had  been  those  who 
had  been  winning  at  the  same  rate  by  the  rise,  nor  were  they 
so  goodnatured,  and  Old  Joe  frequently  found  himself  el- 
bowed out  altogether. 

One  day  half  a  dozen  groups  had  given  him  the  shake.  He 
was  exceedingly  thirsty — his  throat  as  dry  as  a  lime-burner's 
shoe. 

While  he  was  disconsolately  roving  from  saloon  to  saloon 
in  search  of  a  sympathetic  being  with  whom  to  shed  tears,  he 
encountered  a  dilapidated-looking  individual  just  arrived  from 
the  great  West — a  Kansas  sufferer,  in  short.  Old  Joe  heard 
something  of  this  man's  story  of  the  ruin  wrought  in  the  West 
by  the  grasshopper,  and  at  once  froze  to  him  with  his  story 
of  losses  in  stocks.  After  three  drinks  together — the  grass- 
hopper man  appeared  to  have  a  thin  stratum  of  greenbacks  left 
in  his  wallet,  toward  which  Old  Joe  cocked  an  occasional  eye 
— after  about  three  drinks  it  was  settled  by  the  pair  that 
grasshoppers  and  bonanzas  were  two  of  the  worst  plagues  by 
which  the  world  had  ever  been  devastated.  As  more  drinks 
were  taken,  grasshoppers  and  porphyry  and  bonanzas  and 


A  NEW  EXCITEMENT.  409 

beanstalks  became  fearfully  mixed.  At  a  late  hour  they  were 
still  mingling  their  tears  and  toasting  each  other.  "  Here's 
hoping,"  said  the  grasshopper  man,  "  that  yer  cornstalks  may 
always  bear  three  full  (hie!)  ears  and  a  nubbin!"  "And 
here,"  said  Old  Joe,  "is  death  and  confusion  to  all  (hie!) 
brasshoppers  and  gonanzas ! " 

Old  Joe  then  encircled  the  neck  of  his  new-found  friend 
with  his  left  arm,  and  said  in  his  most  kindly  tone :  "  Now, 
ef  you  was  perfec'ly  des  (hie!)  destitute  and  I  was  perfectly 
des  (hie !)  tute,  you'd  soak  everything  you  had  for  (hie !)  me, 
and  I'd  spout  everything  I  persessed  for  you ;  (hie !)  wouldn't 
we?" 

The  opening  of  the  big  bonanza  at  the  nortn  end  of  the 
Comstock  occasioned  a  grand  rush  of  prospectors  to  the 
northward  of  Virginia  City,  a  region  which  had,  strangely 
enough,  never  been  prospected. 

There  had  been  some  surface-scratching  done  in  that  direc- 
tion in  early  times,  and  some  shafts  had  been  sunk  to  the 
depth  of  fifty  to  one  hundred  feet,  but  no  regular  scientific 
prospecting  had  been  done.  Claims  were  taken  up  in  all 
directions,  first-class  shafts  begun,  machinery  set  up,  and 
buildings  of  all  kinds  erected.  In  a  few  months  quite  a  vil- 
lage was  built  up,  to  which  was  given  the  name  of  North 
Virginia.  This  place  is  about  two  miles  north  of  Virginia 
City,  and  in  case  of  the  continuation  of  the  Comstock  lode 
being  found  in  that  neighborhood  will  be  likely  to  be  a  place 
of  considerable  importance.  Some  excellent  "prospects"  are 
being  found  in  the  shafts  that  are  being  sunk  in  that  direction, 
and  the  owners  of  several  mines  are  confident  that  at  no 
distant  day  they  will  find  a  big  bonanza  on  their  part  of  the 
lode. 

At  the  time  these  claims  were  being  located  there  was 
almost  a  revival  of  the  scenes  of  early  days.  Men  were  out 
in  the  night  staking  off  ground  and  posting  notices,  and  there 
was  a  good  deal  of  claim-jumping,  with  some  fights,  going 
on.  Men  were  seen  bringing  pieces  of  rock  into  town  as 
specimens  from  their  mines,  and  these  were  passed  from  hand 
to  hand  and  commented  on,  much  as  when  the  miners  first 
began  to  roam  the  hills.  Even  the  colored  population,  who 


410  SHARP  DOINGS. 


seldom  trouble  themselves  about  mines,  caught  the  infection 
and  went  out  prospecting  and  locating  mines — became  experts 
on  ore.  One  of  these  coming  into  town  with  a  big  chunk  of 
rock  in  his  hand  met  a  friend  whose  eyes  began  to  dilate  at 
what  he  thought  might  be  a  lump  of  solid  silver.  Said  the — 

First  Expert — "Wha— -what  yer  got  thar?" 

Second  Expert — "  Look  at  dat,  sah !  Dat's  out'en  de  Day 
of  Jubilee  mine?  Boy,  I  tell  yer  dat's  gwine  to  be  a  mine. 
Wha — what  you  say,  now,  dat's  gwine  to  pay  at  de  present 
prices  of  deduction,  hey  ? " 

First  Expert — "  Fore  de  Lord,  I  doesn't  know !  Gwine  to 
pay,  think  ? " 

Second  Expert — "  Gwine  to  pay?  gwine  to  pay  ?  Now  you 
makes  me  laugh.  .  Jes  look  at  dat  rock,  Edward  Arthur — look 
at  dat  side  of  it !  See  de  pure  chloroform  dat's  percolated  all 
ober  it !  Now  ax  me  ef  dat  rock's  gwine  to  pay.  Look  at  de 
formation  and  de  stratification !  Ax  me  ef  dat  rock's  gwine  to 
pay!  Why,  you  see  you  doesn't  know  de  fust  principles 
'bout  dem  oldah  prefatory  periods  when  dis  here  yearf  was  a 
multitudinous  mass,  floatin'  roun'  in  a  chaotic  hemisphere; 
time  o'  de  propylites  an  jewrasic  periods.  Your  ignorance 
perfectly  affixes  me." 

During  the  stock -excitement  on  the  Comstock,  in  1872,  a 
shrewd  operator  in  stocks  found  himself  in  possession  of  an 
immense  number  of  shares  of  Alpha  mining-stock — many 
more  shares  than  he  cared  to  hold.  He  was  a  man  who  was  and 
still  is  considered  one  of  the  sharpest  operators  on  the  lode. 
A  word  or  even  a  hint  from  him  was  worth  a  whole  mint  of 
money.  One  day  this  "stock-sharp"  said  to  his  wife:  "My 
dear,  how  much  money  have  you  got  ?  " 

"  I  have  $6,000,"  said  the  wife.     "Why?  " 

"  Put  it  all  into  the  Alpha,"  said  her  husband.  "  Ask  no 
questions,  but  buy  all  the  Alpha  you  can  get.  Be  careful, 
however,  not  to  mention  to  a  living  soul  that  I  told  you  to  do 
this." 

The  wife  faithfully  promised  that  she  would  "  not  even 
breathe  the  name  of  the  mine."  As  soon  as  her  husband  was 
out  of  sight,  she  put  on  her  hat  and  shawl  and  hurried  away 
to  the  house  of  her  married  sister  and  gently  murmured  into 


TUsuxr  OF  iTsJ<E£pyifG-(?J.    " 


THE   SECRET. 


"  THE  ORE  A  TEST  BUY  ON  THE  LEAD."  4H 

her  ^ar  the  news  that  Alpha  was  a  "  big  buy."  That  night 
the  brother-in-law,  Mr.  Hornbeck,  knew  that  there  was  a  big 
speculation  in  Alpha;  his  folks  and  the  Doolittles  next  heard 
of  it,  then  the  Turners,  and  Homers,  and  Huffs,  and  Howards 
—  all  the  relations  of  the  speculator's  wife,  and  the  rela- 
tions of  their  relations,  were  in  possession  of  the  grand  secret 
in  about  three  days,  and  about  the  fifth  day  all  the  bosom 
friends  of  all  these  knew  that  Alpha  was  going  to  "boom  sky- 
high"  and  all  were  buying  Alpha  right  and  left. 

Being  in  such  great  demand,  the  stock  did  "boom,"  sure 
enough.  All  the  time  it  was  booming,  and  the  wife's  relations 
were  going  for  it,  our  shrewd  manipulator  and  deep  observer 
of  human  nature  (feminine),  was  quietly  feeding  it  out  to  them 
at  the  highest  figures — not  only  to  them,  but  to  hundreds  of 
others,  for  by  this  time  about  half  the  population  of  Virginia 
City  had  been  confidentially  informed  that  Alpha  was  the 
"  greatest  buy  on  the  whole  lead." 

Just  what  was  to  happen  in  the  mine  no  one  knew — no  one 
pretended  to  know — but  the  grand  head  authority — away 
back  so  far  along  the  line  of  knowing  ones  that  few  in  the 
front  ranks  knew  his  name  even — could  not  be  mistaken.  The 
general  idea  was  that  a  grand  development  was  about  to  be 
made  in  the  mine.  Some  went  so  far  as  to  say  that  a  big 
strike  had  been  made  in  one  of  the  drifts  on  the  lower-level 
of  the  mine  months  before,  but  that  the  drift  had  been  boarded 
up  for  reasons  best  known  to  the  officers  of  the  company. 
This  bit  of  news,  it  was  said,  had  come  out  through  one  of  the 
miners  who  was  of  the  secret  shift  engaged  in  the  drift  when 
the  rich  ore — "  almost  pure  silver,"  some  now  began  to  assert 
with  a  considerable  degree  of  positiveness — was  struck. 

All  at  last  being  loaded  down  with  the  stock,  and  no  new 
buyers  coming  in,  Alpha  began  to  tumble.  The  Homers  and 
the  Huffs  and  the  Howards  became  frightened  and  began  to 
sell.  The  stock  then  tumbled  more  rapidly  than  ever,  and 
the  Hornbeck's  and  Doolittles  and  Turners  became  panic- 
stricken  and  threw  their  stock  upon  the  market,  when  from 
$280  per  share  it  finally  went  down  to  $42  and  stopped  there 
dead  and  flat. 

One  day,  soon  after  this  low  price  had  been  reached,  our 


412 


A  LAD  Y'S  SPECULA  TION. 


stock-sharp  said  to  his  wife :  "  By  the  way,  my  dear,  how  did 
you  come  out  with  that  Alpha  stock  of  yours  ?  You  sold,  I 
presume,  while  it  was  up  ? " 

"  Why,  n-no,  dear,"  hesitatingly  answered  his  better-half, 
"  I  thought  from  all  I  heard  that  it  would  go  to  $500  and  so 
I  held  on  to  it  and  have  got  it  all  yet." 

"  Well,  well,"  said  the  husband,  "  did  I  ever  hear  the  like  in 
my  life !  Got  all  of  your  stock  yet  ?  Tut !  tut !  then  you've 
lost  your  $6,000 !  Well,  dear,  don't  mind  it.  Here  is  a  check 
for  $6,000 ;  take  it,  and  don't  you  ever  again  try  speculating 
in  stocks.  You  don't  understand  it,  my  dear — indeed  you 
don't!" 


CHAPTER  LV. 

HOLIDAYS    AND    FUN. 

THE  people  of  the  land  of  the  "  big  bonanza  "  do  not  toil 
always  and  without  ceasing;  but,  as  in  other  lands,  give 
some  time  to  pleasure  and  recreation. 

There  are  a  number  of  places  of  summer  resort  to  which  all 
may  flee  for  a  few  weeks  each  year  during  the  hot  weather  of 
July  and  August.  Most  popular  among  these  is  Lake  Tahoe, 
situated  high  among  the  grand  scenery  of  the  Sierra  Nevada 
Mountains,  and  distant  but  thirty-five  miles  from  Virginia  City. 
No  land  can  boast  a  more  beautiful  sheet  of  water  than  Lake 
Tahoe,  and  its  surroundings  form  a  fit  setting  for  such  a  gem. 
Donner  Lake,  also  in  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains,  and  situated 
but  a  few  miles  north  of  Lake  Tahoe,  is  almost  as  popular  as 
the  latter,  though  it  is  much  smaller.  Its  surroundings  are, 
however,  grand  and  picturesque,  turn  which  way  we  may. 

There  are,  besides,  Webber  and  Independence  Lakes,  which 
are  in  the  same  neighborhood,  and  which  are  easy  of  access.  In 
Hope  Valley  on  or  near  the  summit  of  the  Sierras,  where  many 
pleasure-seekers  go,  there  is  found  fine  trout-fishing  in  all  the 
brooks,  and  excellent  quail  and  grouse-shooting  everywhere 
among  the  hills.  Indeed,  for  those  who  have  the  time  and  means 
to  spend  a  few  weeks  in  the  bracing  atmosphere  and  amid  the 
wild  and  picturesque  scenery  of  the  mountains,  there  is  no  lack 
of  attractions.  The  man  of  meditative  disposition,  who  is  weary 
of  the  bustle  and  strife  and  the  noise  and  crowds  of  towns,  will 
wander  along  by  himself  and  be  happy  in  many  and  many  a 
place  away  up  by  the  tall  peaks  in  the  grand  solitudes,  where 
whispers  from  heaven  seem  to  come  down  through  the  pines. 

413 


ROMANTIC  SCENEJR  Y. 


Lake  Tahoe  lies  one  mile  and  a  quarter  above  the  level  of  the 
sea,  and  is  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  most  romantic  and  pictur- 
esque mountain  scenery.  The  lake  is  about  thirty  miles  in  length 
from  north  to  south,  and  from  eight  to  fifteen  miles  in  width. 
It  lies  partly  in  California  and  partly  in  Nevada.  Its  waters  are 
of  extraordinary  purity  and  clearness  and,  in  places,  have  been 
sounded  to  a  depth  of  over  two  thousand  feet. 

There  are  several  fine  bays  around  the  lake,  the  largest  and 
most  beautiful  of  which  is  that  known  as  Emerald  Bay,  which  is 
over  two  miles  long.  This  bay  is  about  four  hundred  yards  wide 
at  its  mouth,  but  rapidly  widens  inland.  It  is  completely  land- 
locked and  is  surrounded  with  timbered  hills,  many  of  which  are 
covered  with  rugged  and  picturesque  rocks,  which  tower  among 
and  above  the  pines,  and  other  evergreen-trees.  There  are  some 
small  islands  in  the  bay  which  add  much  to  its  beauty,  and  on  all 
sides  are  to  be  obtained  fine  views  of  immense  rocky  canons. 
Eagle  Canon  contains  some  vast  piles  of  rocks,  with  clumps  of 
pines  scattered  here  and  there  among  them,  and  a  whole  day 
might  be  spent  in  rambling  through  it  without  exhausting  its 
many  beauties.  Cave  Rock,  on  the  eastern  shore  of  the  lake 
is  a  huge  pyramid  of  granite  which  occupies  a  very  picturesque 
position  and  which  contains  on  one  side  a  cavern  of  considerable 
extent.  In  the  neighborhood  of  this  rock  tall  and  beautiful  pines 
are  seen  quite  down  to  the  shore  of  the  lake. 

The  view  from  what  is  called  Rocky  Point,  on  the  eastern 
shore,  looking  toward  Cave  Rock  is  also  very  fine.  Another 
fine  view  in  the  direction  of  Cave  Rock  is  obtained  from  the 
Sierra  Rocks.  The  view  to  the  northward  from  Sierra  Rocks, 
toward  Rocky  Point,  is  one  in  which  are  found  several  pictur- 
esque tree-covered  points  of  rocky  land,  extending  far  out  into 
the  waters  of  the  lake.  Indeed,  there  are  new  beauties  to  be 
found  in  all  directions. 

Zephyr  Cave,  also  on  the  eastern  shore  of  the  lake  is  a  most 
romantic  spot  and  the  scenery  is  such  as  to  set  the  artist 
thinking  of  his  pencils  the  moment  he  enters  the  little  bay.  The 
Shakespeare-Rock,  plainly  visible  from  the  Glenbrook  House,  on 
the  southern  shore  of  the  lake,  is  so  called  on  account  of  there 
being  in  the  rugged  outlines  of  its  face  a  striking  resemblance 
to  the  features  of  the  immortal  poet.  All  who  visit  the  lake 


A  CURIOUS  FREAK  OF  NA  TURE.  415 

desire"'  first  of  all  to  see  this  rock.  Like  many  other  things  of 
the  kind,  there  is  much  in  the  position  from  which  it  is  viewed, 
and  not  a  little  in  the  imaginative  powers  of  the  person  viewing 
it.  The  water  of  the  lake  is  so  transparent  that  pebbles  on  its 
bottom  can  be  distinctly  seen  at  the  depth  of  fifty  or  sixty  feet. 
When  out  upon  the  water  in  aboat  during  a  time  when  it  is  per- 
fectly calm,  one  seems  suspended  in  mid-air.  It  is  not  easy  to 
swim  in  the  waters  of  the  lake.  Owing  to  the  great  altitude  and 
consequent  decrease  of  atmospheric  pressure,  the  water  is  much 
less  dense  then  the  water  of  a  lake  or  stream  at  the  level  of  the 
sea.  On  account  of  this  lack  of  density  and  buoyancy,  the  bodies 
of  persons  drowned  in  the  lake  never  rise  to  the  surface.  Many 
have  been  drowned  in  Lake  Tahoe,  but  a  body  has  never  yet 
been  recovered. 

Leaving  the  lake  and  rambling  off  into  the  surrounding  country, 
much  that  is  grand  and  romantic  is  to  be  found.  From  the 
western  summit  is  to  be  had  a  magnificent  panoramic  view  of 
the  lake  and  the  valley  or  basin  in  which  it  is  situated,  with  all 
the  surrounding  mountains.  The  tourist  may  extend  his  rambles 
above  Lake  Tahoe  to  Fallen  Leaf  Lake,  one  of  the  most  beati- 
ful  little  lakes  in  the  mountains.  Cascade  Lake  and  other  small 
lakes  will  also  be  found  worthy  of  a  visit.  About  the  shores  of 
Lake  Tahoe  will  frequently  be  encountered  the  huts  of  the 
Washoe  Indians.  They  are  generally  found  in  some  romantic 
spot,  and,  with  their  uncouth  occupants,  add  not  a  little  to  the 
picturesqueness  of  the  region.  Some  of  the  old  saw-mills  are 
also  of  a  rather  unsual  style  and  will  attract  the  attention  of  the 
tourist  and  the  artist. 

At  "  Yank's  Station,"  on  the  Placerville  road,  a  short  distance 
from  the  shore  of  the  lake,  is  to  be  seen  a  most  singular  freak 
of  nature  to  which  the  name  of  "  Nick  of  the  Woods  "  has  been 
given.  It  is  a  large  knot  in  a  crotch  of  a  cedar-tree,  which  forks 
a  few  feet  from  the  ground,  but  it  looks  like  a  work  of  art.  It 
startlingly  resembles  the  head  of  an  old  man.  In  looking  upon 
this  marvel  of  nature  we  can  very  easily  imagine  it  to  be  some 
hoary-headed  old  sinner  thus  wedged  into  the  crotch  of  the  tree 
and  imprisoned  for  all  time  on  account  of  some  grievous  offence 
committed  about  the  time  that  he  was  thus  placed  in  the  stocks. 
So  natural  and  perfect  is  this  head  of  an  old  man,  and  such  an 


416  LAKE  TAHOE. 


expression  of  patient  suffering  is  seen  in  every  feature  of  the  face, 
that  many  persons  will  not  believe  that  it  is  wholly  the  work  of 
nature  until  after  having  closely  examined  it.  "Yank's  and  all 
of  the  other  stations  along  the  Placerville  road,  were  places  of 
much  importance  during  the  early  days  of  Washoe,  when  all  the 
machinery  and  supplies  of  every  kind  came  over  the  mountains 
on  wagons. 

When  the  teamsters  stopped  at  night  or  noon,  the  road  in  front 
of  the  stations  at  which  they  halted  would  be  blockaded  for  a 
great  distance,  and  it  looked  almost  as  though  all  the  teams  in 
California  were  crossing  the  Sierras  in  one  grand  caravan.  Now, 
since  the  completion  of  the  Central  Pacific,  and  Virginia  and 
Truckee  Railroads,  the  travellers  on  the  old  mountain-roads  are 
few,  and  nothing  of  the  old  life  and  bustle  is  seen  at  the  once 
famous  stations.  Even  the  old  Lake  House,  at  Tahoe,  though 
it  was  built  of  good  pine-logs  and  was  very  warm  and  substan- 
tial, has  given  way  to  more  stylish  structures.  Times  are 
changed  and  few  but  pleasure-seekers  are  now  seen  on  the  old 
road  where  once  the  sounding  "  blacksnake  "  awoke  the  echoes 
far  and  wide  among  the  hills. 

The  tourist  who  wishes  to  see  as  much  as  possible  of  the 
mountains  may  go  to  the  Big  Tree  Grove,  Calaveras  county, 
California,  from  Lake  Tahoe,  by  taking  what  is  called  the  Big 
Tree  Road.  On  this  road  he  will  find  many  beautiful  valleys, 
and  much  romantic  scenery  at  an  elevation  of  from  seven  to 
nine  thousand  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  At  Lake  Tahoe 
there  are  large  and  well-kept  hotels  at  several  points,  two  or 
three  small  steamboats  and  a  great  fleet  of  sail  and  row-boats, 
with  fishing-tackle  of  all  kinds,  as  trout  abound  in  the  waters  of 
the  lake.  Tourists  from  the  East  who  desire  to  visit  the  lake 
while  on  their  way  to  California  can  do  so  very  conveniently  by 
leaving  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad  at  Reno  and  taking  the 
cars  of  the  Virginia  and  Truckee  Railroad  to  Carson  City,  a 
distance  of  thirty-one  miles,  thence  by  stage  to  the  lake,  a  dis- 
tance of  fourteen  miles. 

On  this  stage-line  (Benton's)  from  Carson  to  Lake  Tahoe  will 
be  found  Hank  Monk,  one  of  the  best  known  and  most  famous 
stage-drivers  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains.  He  it  was  who 
gave  Horace  Greeley  his  memorable  ride  across  the  Sierras  on 
the  occasion  of  his  visit  to  California.  Mr.  Greeley  was  anxious 


"HE  COUL&NT  TELL  A  LIE."  417 

to  reach  Placerville  as  early  in  the  evening  as  possible,  as  he 
was  expected  to  make  a  speech  to  the  people  of  the  town, 
and  once  or  twice  expressed  a  fear  that  he  should  be  behind 
time.  Monk  said  nothing,  as  he  was  then  on  a  long  up-grade. 
At  length  the  top  of  the  mountain  was  reached,  and  Monk 
started  on  the  down-grade  at  a  fearful  rate  of  speed.  Mr. 
Greeley  bounded  about  the  coach  like  a  bean  in  a  gourd,  and 
soon  became  greatly  alarmed.  He  thrust  his  head  out  at  the 
coach  window  and  tried  to  remonstrate,  but  Monk  only  cried : 
"  Keep  your  seat,  Horace,  I'll  take  you  through  on  time !  " 

Mr.  Greeley  then  remained  quiet  for  a  time,  when  he  again 
became  alarmed  as  they  whirled  at  lightning  speed  around  some 
short  curve  in  the  road,  and  out  would  come  his  head,  and 
again  Monk  would  shout :  "  Keep  your  seat,  Horace." 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  philosopher  never  took  a  wilder  ride, 
than  that  in  the  Sierras  with  Hank  Monk  for  his  driver. 

Monk,  in  common  with  all  his  tribe,  hates  the  sight  of  one  of 
those  ponderous  specimens  of  architecture  in  the  trunk-line 
known  as  the  "  Saratoga  bandbox."  On  one  occasion  a  lady 
who  was  stopping  at  the  Glenbrook  House,  Lake  Tahoe,  had  a 
"  Saratoga  "  of  the  three-decker  style  at  Carson  City,  which  she 
wished  brought  up  to  the  lake.  The  trunk  was  about  as  long 
and  wide  as  a  first-class  spring  mattress  and  seven  or  eight  feet 
high.  The  lady  had  managed  to  get  it  as  far  as  Carson  by  rail, 
but  the  trouble  was  to  get  it  up  into  the  mountain.  Monk  had 
two  or  three  times  promised  to  bring  it  up  "  next  trip,"  but  always 
arrived  without  it.  At  last  he  drove  up  in  front  of  the  hotel  one 
evening,  and,  as  usual,  the  lady  came  out  on  the  veranda  to  ask 
if  he  had  brought  her  trunk. 

f  ^Like  the  immortal  Washington,  Monk  cannot  tell  a  lie,  and  so 
he  said :  "  No,  marm,  I  haven't  brought  it,  but  I  think  some  of 
it  will  be  up  on  the  next  stage." 

"  Some  of  it !  "  cried  the  lady. 

"  Yes ;  maybe  half  of  it,  or  such  a  matter." 

"  Half  of  it  ?  "  fairly  shrieked  the  owner  of  the  Saratoga, 

"  Yes,  marm ;  half  to-morrow  and  the  rest  of  it  next  day  or 
the  day  after." 

"  Why,  how  in  the  name  of  common  sense  can  they  bring  half 
of  it?" 


418  PRACTICAL  JOKING. 

"Well,  when  I  left  they  were  sawing  it  in  two,  and  —  " 

"  Sawing  it  in  two  !     Sawing  my  trunk  in  two  ?  " 

"  That  was  what  I  said,"  coolly  answered  Monk.  "  Two  men 
had  a  big  cross-cut  saw,  and  were  working  down  through  it — 
had  got  down  about  to  the  middle,  I  think." 

"  Sawing  my  trunk  in  two  in  the  middle  !  "  groaned  the  lady. 
"  Sawing  it  in  two  and  all  my  best  clothes  in  it !  God"  help  the 
man  that  saws  my  trunk  I^God  help  him  I  say!  "  and  in  a  flood 
of  tears  and  a  towering  passion  she  rushed  indoors,  threatening 
the  hotel-keeper,  the  stage-line,  the  railroad  company,  the  town 
of  Carson,  and  the  State  of  Nevada  with  suits  for  damages.  It 
was  in  vain  that  she  was  assured  that  there  was  no  truth  in  the 
story  of  the  sawing — that  she  was  told  that  Monk  was  a  great 
joker — she  would  not  believe  but  that  her  trunk  had  been  cut  in 
two  until  it  arrived  intact ;  even  then  she  had  first  to  examine  its 
contents  most  thoroughly,  so  strongly  had  the  story  of  the  saw- 
ing impressed  itself  on  her  mind.  Monk's  "  Saratoga  "  joke  is 
still  remembered  and  told  at  Lake  Tahoe,  but  the  ladies  all  say 
that  they  can't  see  that  there  is  "  one  bit  of  fun  in  it.'-^ 

Just  here  I  may  say  that  when  at  Carson  City,  by  taking  the 
cars  of  the  Virginia  and  Truckee  Railroad  to  Virginia  City,  the 
"big  bonanza ''and  all  of  the  big  mines,  and  mills  on  the 
Comstock  lode  may  be  seen  and  explored.  The  distance  is  but 
twenty-one  miles. 

In  passing  down  the  Carson  River  by  rail,  the  tourists  will  see 
a  number  of  water-mills  that  are  at  work  on  silver  ores,  and  after 
leaving  the  river,  and  beginning  the  ascent  of  the  mountain  to 
Virginia,  he  will  see  many  miles  of  the  crookedest  railroad  in  the 
world.  Were  these  wonderful  silver-mines  in  Chili  and  Peru, 
all  Americans  who  found  themselves  anywhere  within  five 
hundred  miles  of  them  would  visit  and  examine  them,  even 
though  obliged  to  bribe  a  dozen  squads  of  guards  in  order  to 
attain  their  object;  but  being  here  on  American  soil,  where 
they  may  be  reached  in  a  ride  of  three  hours  by  rail  from  the 
main  line  of  travel,  few  take  the  tr@uble  to  visit  them.  Ladies, 
as  well  as  gentlemen,  may  visit  and  explore  the  mines,  even  to 
the  lowest  of  the  lower  levels. 

Travellers  may  leave  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad  at  Reno, 
take  the  Virginia  and  Truckee  Railroad  and  run  up  to  Virginia 


THE  SUMMIT  OF  THE  SIERRAS.  419 

City, ''examine  the  mines  and  mills,  return  to  Carson  City 
and  take  the  stage-line  to  Lake  Tahoe,  cross  the  lake  on  a 
steamer,  then  take  another  line  of  stages,  nine  miles,  to  Truckee, 
on  the  line  of  the  Central  Pacific  again,  when  the  journey  to 
San  Francisco  may  be  resumed. 

In  passing  by  stage  from  Carson  City  to  Lake  Tahoe  a  fine 
view  will  be  obtained  of  the  huge  lumber-flume  of  the  Carson 
and  Lake  Tahoe  Lumber  Company,  which  is  twenty-one  miles 
in  length  and  through  which  seven  hundred  cords  of  wood,  or 
half  a  million  feet  of  lumber  or  mining  timbers  can  daily  be 
delivered  at  Carson  from  the  eastern  summit  of  the  Sierras. 
The  altitude  of  the  eastern  summit  is  7,312  feet;  of  Lake  Tahoe, 
6,220  feet;  and  of  the  western  summit,  7,315  feet;  consequently 
the  lake  lies  in  a  basin  about  1000  feet  in  depth. 

At  the  north  end  of  the  lake,  near  Tahoe  City,  stands  the 
mountain  selected  for  the  Lick  Observatory.  This  astronomical 
observatory  is  to  be  built  with  money  donated  for  the  purpose 
by  James  Lick,  a  San  Francisco  millionaire,  and  on  it  is  to  be 
mounted  the  finest  and  most  powerful  telescope  that  can  be 
manufactured  in  the  world.  At  Truckee,  on  the  Central  Pacific 
Railroad,  the  altitude  is  5,860  feet ;  at  Summit  Valley,  seven- 
teen miles  further  west,  it  is  6,800 ;  and  ten  miles  beyond,  at 
Cisco,  it  has  decreased  to  5,950.  Here  is  the  great  snow-belt  on 
the  summit  of  the  Sierras.  It  is  here  that  snow  falls  to  such  a 
depth  as  to  almost  cover  up  the  houses,  and  here  it  is  that  the 
people  travel  on  Norwegian  snow-shoes  in  winter,  when  they 
travel  any  other  way  than  by  rail. 

About  Cisco  the  snow  appears  to  fall  to  a*  greater  depth  than 
at  any  other  point  on  the  mountains.  It  is  a  very  difficult 
matter  to  keep  the  track  of  the  railroad  open  at  this  place  in 
winter,  and  at  times  the  trains  are  almost  buried  in  the  snow. 
The  snow-banks  are  frequently  so  high  on  both  sides  of  the 
track  that  even  the  smoke-stack  of  the  engine  is  hidden  when  a 
train  passes  along. 


CHAPTER  LVI. 

TERRIBLE   STORY   OF   THE   DONNERS. 

ON  his  arrival  at  Truckee,  the  pleasure-seeker  will  do 
well  to  spend  a  few  hours  in  the  examination  of  the 
beauties  of  Donner  Lake,  a  lake  much  resorted  to  by 
the  people  both  of  California  and  Nevada,  and  a  perfect  little 
gem.  Those  who  are  afraid  to  venture  out  upon  the  broad 
waters  of  Tahoe,  will  be  quite  at  ease  on  Donner. 

From  the  town  of  Truckee,  Donner  Lake  is  reached  in 
travelling  a  distance  of  but  two  miles,  over  an  excellent 
carriage-road.  The  lake  is  about  three  miles  in  length  and 
from  a  mile  to  a  mile  and  a  half  in  width.  It  is  shut  in  on 
all  sides  by  lofty  and  picturesque  mountains.  To  the  south 
and  west  these  are  very  imposing — mountain  piled  on  moun- 
tain. While  the  mountains  to  the  southward  are  co\7ered  to  a 
considerable  extent,  in  their  lower  ranges,  with  pine,  fir, 
spruce,  and  other  evergreen  trees,  those  on  the  west,  toward 
the  summit,  are  principally  bald  and  barren  piles  of  granite ; 
though  there  are  scattering  pines  clinging  in  places  where 
their  roots  find  a  hold  in  the  crevices  of  the  rocks. 

The  track  of  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad  passes  along  the 
face  of  the  mountains  on  the  south  side  of  the  lake,  hundreds 
of  feet  above  its  placid  waters.  From  the  lake  the  trains  are 
seen  moving  along  the  sides  of  the  great  cliffs,  where  they 
seem  to  run  on  a  track  laid  in  the  air  or  to  cling  to  the  rocks 
"by  their  eyebrows,"  as  an  old  "mountain  man  "  once  sug- 
gested, on  looking  up  at  the  trains.  At  numerous  points 
along  the  track  there  are  snow-sheds  which  greatly  interfere 
with  the  view  of  the  lake  from  the  cars,  yet  in  many  places 

420 


DONNER  LAKE. 


picturesque  glimpses  of  it  are  obtained,  and  of  the  mountain 
scenery  in  all  directions. 

Through  the  bare  granite  mountains  walling  in  the  lake  on 
the  west,  passes  a  tunnel,  into  which  it  is  a  relief  to  see  the 
trains  plunge  as  they  dart  through  the  last  of  the  snow-sheds 
and  glide  round  the  last  of  the  cliffs. 

From  the  top  of  the  great  mountain  through  which  passes 
the  railroad-tunnel,  is  obtained  a  grand  and  comprehensive 
view  of  Donner  Lake  and  all  its  surroundings.  The  valley  in 
which  the  little  sheet  of  water  lies  is  so  small  that,  seen  from 
above,  it  presents  much  th6  appearance  of  the  crater  of  an 
extinct  volcano.  At  each  end,  east  and  west,  are  seen  dark 
groves  of  small  pines,  a  few  acres  in  extent,  and  these,  with 
the  waters  of  the  lake,  occupy  all  the  level  land  in  the  basin. 

To  the  eastward  of  the  lake,  days  of  mountain  climbing 
distant,  rise  the  snowy  peaks  of  the  eastern  summit  of  the 
Sierras,  glittering  in  the  sunlight  and  dimly  seen ;  to  the  west- 
ward, on  the  western  summit,  rises  Donner  Peak,  crowned 
with  black  and  rugged  rocks,  necked  with  patches  of  snow, 
and  tufted  here  and  there  with  a  few  scattering  and  stunted 
pines.  The  water  of  Donner  Lake  is  as  clear,  cold,  and  sweet 
as  that  of  any  mountain-spring.  At  the  lake  are  good  hotels 
and  both  sail  and  row-boats  for  the  accommodation  of  visitors. 
Those  who  are  lovers  of  the  sport  so  lauded  by  ^ood  old 
Isaak  Walton,  will  find  an  abundance  of  trout  in  the  small 
brooks  putting  down  from  the  mountains.  The  lake  has  an 
outlet  at  the  east  end  which  forms  a  stream  of  considerable 
size,  called  Little  Truckee  River.  This  unites  with  the  main 
Truckee  River,  which  is  the  outlet  of  Lake  Tahoe.  There  is 
good  trout-fishing  in  the  Little  Truckee,  which  is  a  bright 
and  rapid  stream. 

It  was  on  the  banks  of  the  Little  Truckee,  in  the  groves  of 
pine  at  the  foot  of  the  lake,  that  occurred  the  horrible  Donner 
disaster,  some  years  before  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California. 

The  unfortunate  Donner  party,  numbering  seventy-six  souls, 
principally  emigrants  from  Illinois,  reached  the  Sierra  Nevada 
Mountains,  October  3ist,  1746,  a  month  later  in  the  season 
than  was  safe  at  that  time  to  be  found  in  such  a  region.  That 
year  the  winter  snows  set  in  about  three  weeks  earlier  than 
24 


422  LOST  IN  THE  SNOW. 

usual,  and  with  unusual  severity,  and  in  a  few  days  fell  to  the 
depth  of  several  feet. 

When  the  snow  began  falling,  the  train  had  crossed  what  is 
known  as  the  eastern  summit  of  the  Sierras,  and  had  entered 
Summit  Valley,  in  which  lies  Donner  Lake.  The  train  was 
pushed'  on  through  the  storm  until  the  foot  of  the  lake  was 
reached.  Here  the  snow  fell  so  rapidly,  day  and  night,  that 
it  was  soon  several  feet  in  depth,  and  it  was  impossible  to 
proceed ;  indeed,  so  great  was  the  fall  of  snow  that  the  cattle 
and  horses  of  the  train  were  soon  buried  beneath  it  in  all 
directions  about  the  camp. 

The  emigrants  then  built  a  number  of  log-houses  in  which 
to  winter,  and  moving  into  these  from  their  wagons,  began  a 
season  of  suffering  unprecedented  in  the  history  of  the  Sierras, 
where  many  men  have  perished  in  the  snow.  Though  many 
individuals  and  small  parties  have  lost  their  lives  in  these 
mountains,  as  a  horrible  scene  of  suffering,  starvation,  and 
death,  the  disaster  which  befel  the  Donner  party  stands  alone 
in  the  history  of  the  Pacific  Coast. 

The  stumps  of  the  trees  cut  by  the  party  still  stand,  and  are 
from  fifteen  to  eighteen  feet  in  height,  showing  the  great 
depth  to  which  the  cabins  and  all  in  the  camp  lay  buried.  At 
first  the  unfortunate  people  lived  on  the  cattle  they  were  able 
to  dig  out  of  the  snow,  but  there  came  a  time  when  no  more 
of  these  could  be  found,  and  then  the  pangs  of  hunger  began 
to  be  felt  in  the  dreary  camp.  It  was  seen  that  unless  relief 
could  be  obtained  from  some  quarter,  all  must  soon  die  of 
starvation. 

In  this  emergency  a  Mr.  Reed,  a  man  of  iron  frame,  pro- 
vided with  a  scanty  stock  of  such  provisions  as  could  be 
gathered  in  the  huts  of  the  castaways,  struggled  through 
the  snow  till  he  had  crossed  the  western  summit  of  the  Sier- 
ras, when  he  made  his  way  as  speedily  as  possible  to  the 
village  of  Yerba  Buena,  now  San  Francisco ;  the  first  place 
where  he  could  look  for  relief.  Here  he  made  known  the 
perilous  position  of  his  friends  in  the  mountains.  As  soon  as 
his  story  was  heard,  a  meeting  was  called,  provisions  were 
contributed,  and  a  relief-party  was  organized.  When  the 
relief-party  arrived  at  the  camp  on  Donner  Lake  and  entered 


A  HORRIBLE  SCENE.  423 

the  cabins  of  the  unfortunates,  forty  persons  were  found  to  be 
still  alive  and  were  rescued.  Thirty-six  were  dead,  and  the 
snow  formed  for  them  a  winding-sheet. 

When  the  relief-party  started  on  their  return  from  the  cab- 
ins, they  were  obliged  to  leave  behind  Mr.  Donner,  a  farmer 
from  Illinois,  who  was  very  ill ;  also,  his  wife,  who  refused 
to  be  saved  if  her  husband  must  be  left  behind.  Keysbury,  a 
German,  for  some  reason  for  which  no  satisfactory  explana- 
tion has  ever  been  given,  was  left  behind  with  the  Donners. 
These  three  persons  were  left  to  winter  in  the  camp,  such 
provisions  as  could  be  spared  by  the  relief-party  being  given 
them.  What  passed  in  the  lone  camp  during  the  dark  and 
dreary  months  that  followed,  will  never  be  known. 

In  April,  a  party,  under  General  Kearney,  was  sent  out  to 
bring  these  persons  over  the  mountains.  On  entering  the 
camp,  only  Keysbury  was  found  alive.  The  party  found  the 
body  of  Mr.  Donner  in  a  tent,  where  it  had  been  carefully 
laid  out  by  his  wife.  Nothing  could  be  seen  of  Mrs.  Donner, 
however.  Old  Keysbury  was  found  reclining  at  his  ease  upon 
the  floor  of  one  of  the  cabins,  calmly  smoking  his  pipe,  and 
apparently  engaged  in  watching  the  smoke-wreaths  as  they 
curled  upward.  He  sat  near  a  wide  fireplace  on  the  hearth 
of  which  blazed  a  fire,  on  which  hung  a  camp-kettle,  found 
to  be  half  filled  with  human  flesh.  Near  at  hand  stood  a 
bucket  partly  filled  with  blood  and  pieces  of  human  flesh, 
while  pieces  of  human  flesh,  fresh  and  bloody,  were  strewn 
about  the  floor. 

Old  Keysbury  himself  presented  a  most  repulsive  appear- 
ance— no  ogre  or  ghoul,  feasting  in  his  den,  could  have  been 
more  hideous.  His  beard  was  of  great  length,  and  spread  in 
tangled  strings  over  his  breast,  his  hair  in  a  great,  matted 
mop,  hung  about  his  shoulders  and  stood  out  over  his  eyes, 
while  the  nails  of  his  fingers  had  grown  to  such  a  length  that 
they  resembled  the  claws  of  a  wild  beast.  He  was  ragged  to 
an  indecent  degree,  exceedingly  filthy,  and  as  ferocious  as  he 
was  filthy.  When  confronted  in  his  den  and  discovered  in 
the  very  act  of  indulging  in  his  cannibal  feast,  he  roused  up 
and  glared  upon  those  who  approached  as  though  he  were  a 
hyena. 


424  WHA  T  BECAME  OF  THE  DONNERS. 

After  some  trouble  he  was  secured  and  was  then  charged 
with  having  murdered  Mrs.  Donner  for  her  flesh  and  money. 
He  stoutly  denied  the  charge,  but  a  rope  having  been  placed 
about  his  neck  and  one  end  of  it  thrown  over  the  limb  of  a 
tree,  the  old  fiend  began  to  beg  for  his  life,  and,  being  released, 
showed  where  he  had  hidden  a  portion  of  the  money.  In 
pity  of  his  miserable  condition — he  appearing  not  wholly  in 
his  right  mind — and  in  view  of  the  apparent  fact  that  he  was 
driven  to  the  deed  by  the  pangs  of  hunger,  Keysbury's  life 
was  spared,  but  he  was  driven  forth  from  the  society  of  his 
kind,  and  became  a  wanderer  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  spurned 
and  avoided  wherever  he  became  known. 

A  young  son  and  daughter  of  the  Donners  were  rescued  by 
the  first  relief-party.  They  were  carried  over  the  deep  snow 
that  lay  in  the  mountains,  on  the  backs  of  men.  When  these 
children  reached  San  Francisco  they  excited  universal  smpa- 
thy  and  in  order  to  do  something  toward  giving  them  a  start 
in  the  world,  they  were  granted  a  loo-vara  lot  each.  Many 
years  afterwards,  when  the  village  of  Yerba  Buena  became 
San  Francisco,  and  a  great  and  rich  city,  these  lots  became 
the  subject  of  a  lawsuit  of  much  importance.  The  remains  of 
the  Donner  cabins  were  to  be  seen  until  a  few  years  since. 
In  some  of  the  cabinets  of  the  curious,  in  Virginia  City,  are 
bones  collected  at  the  old  Donner  camp,  about  the  sites  of  the 
decayed  cabins,  and  some  of  these  may  even  have  been 
gnawed  by  old  Keysbury. 

At  no  great  distance  from  Virginia  City,  there  are  in  several 
localities  hot  springs,  all  of  which  possess  medicinal  virtues 
and  are  much  frequented  by  persons  afflicted  with  rheuma- 
tism and  kindred  disorders.  The  most  wonderful  of  all  these 
are  the  Steamboat  Springs,  in  Steamboat  Valley,  on  the  line 
of  the  Virginia  and  Truckee  Railroad,  about  midway  betwee* 
Reno  and  Carson  City.  The  springs  are  situated  on  a  low 
mound,  about  a  mile  in  length  and  six  hundred  feet  in  width, 
formed  of  rocky  incrustations  deposited  by  the  mineral  waters. 
Running  north  and  south  through  this  low  ridge  are  several 
large  crevices  from  which  arise  columns  of  steam,  heated  air 
and  gases. 

Early  in  the  morning,  when  the  air  is  cool  and  calm,  as 


THE  SPRINGS.  425 


many,  as  sixty  or  seventy  columns  of  steam  may  be  seen  rising 
along  the  ridge,  many  of  which  ascend  to  the  height  of  over 
fifty  feet.  Far  down  in  the  crevices,  which  are  over  a  foot  in 
width,  may  be  heard  the  surging  of  billows  of  boiling  water. 
At  the  sides  and  ends  of  the  crevices  are  a  great  number  of 
boiling  springs,  some  of  which  spurt  water  to  the  height  of 
two  or  three  feet  above  the  surface.  A  string  smell  of  sul- 
phur pervades  the  atmosphere,  and  pure  sulphur  is  found  in 
many  places  along  the  line  of  the  large  crevices. 

At  times,  some  of  these  springs  spout  water  to  a  great  height. 
In  1860,  one  about  the  diameter  of  an  ordinary  well,  threw  a 
column  of  hot  water  three  feet  in  diameter  to  the  height  of 
over  fifty  feet.  This  spring  was  intermittent.  After  spouting 
steadily  for  an  hour  it  would  suddenly  cease  with  a  sound  as 
of  a  great  sigh,  as  the  direction  of  the  internal  force  changed 
and  the  water  seemed  sucked  back  into  the  regions  below. 
The  eruptions  of  this  spring  occurred  once  in  about  eight 
hours.  After  the  water  was  sucked  back  into  the  ground,  a 
hole  about  nine  feet  in  depth  was  seen,  the  bottom  of  which 
was  covered  with  sand.  The  withdrawing  of  the  water  through 
this  sand  appeared  to  be  the  cause  of  the  sighing  sound  heard 
at  the  end  of  each  eruption. 

When  a  grand  season  of  spouting  was  about  to  begin,  a 
heavy  rumbling  would  be  heard  below,  there  was  a  hissing 
sound  at  the  bottom  of  the  well,  bubbles  came1  up  through 
the  sand,  and  presently  boiling  water  surged  in.  This  water 
would  rush,  foaming  and  hissing,  to  within  two  or  three  feet 
of  the  surface,  when  it  would  suddenly  withdraw  with  a  great 
sigh.  In  about  a  minute  the  hissing  and  rumbling  would 
again  begin,  and  again  the  water  would  rush  almost  to  the 
top  of  the  well.  When  this  had  been  three  or  four  times 
repeated,  the  preliminary  performance — notes  of  preparation, 
as  it  were — had  ended.  A  rumbling  much  louder  than  any- 
thing before  heard  began,  the  ground  for  many  rods  about 
the  spot  was  violently  shaken,  and  on  a  sudden,  with  a  great 
roar,  a  huge  column  of  water  darted  into  the  air.  Had  this 
spring  continued  these  eruptions,  it  would  have  been  one  of 
the  lions  of  the  country,  but  after  a  season  of  activity  in  the 
Spring  of  1860,  it  became  closed  up,  and  has  since  been  one  of 


426  THE  GOLDEN  STA  TE. 


the  tamest  springs  along  the  line.  In  1862  a  spring  for  a 
time  spouted  water  to  the  height  of  fifty  or  sixty  feet,  through 
an  orifice  about  three  inches  in  diameter. 

In  June,  1873,  the  then  proprietor  of  the  Steamboat  Springs 
and  hotel,  lost  his  life  in  one  of  the  springs.  He  was  engaged 
in  the  erection  of  a  new  bath-house  over  a  large  pool  of 
boiling  water,  some  five  feet  in  depth,  for  use  in  giving  steam 
baths.  Timbers  for  the  foundation  had  been  laid  across  the 
pool,  and  the  man  walked  out  on  one  of  these  to  arrange  a 
cross-timber,  when  he  slipped  and  fell  into  the  scalding  water. 
The  water  was  so  deep  as  to  reach  nearly  to  his  neck,  and  so 
hot  that  eggs  could  be  cooked  in  it  in  two  minutes. 

When  he  fell  into  the  pool,  he  was  either  so  much  fright- 
ened or  felt  such  pain  that  for  a  time  he  seemed  in  a  manner 
paralyzed,  and  did  hardly  anything  toward  trying  to  make 
his  escape.  He  was  in  the  spring  at  least  half  a  minute  before 
he  got  out,  which  he  at  last  did  principally  through  his  own 
exertions,  though  a  man  who  was  working  near  the  place  ran 
to  his  assistance  and  lent  him  a  helping  hand  when  he  had 
reached  the  bank  of  the  pool.  When  his  clothes  were  taken 
off,  the  greater  part  of  the  skin  slipped  from  his  body.  He 
was  literally  cooked  alive,  and  lived  but  a  short  time. 

At  certain  seasons  of  the  year,  many  of  the  millionaires  of 
the  Comstock  are  to  be  found  rambling  in  California,  taking 
their  ease  in  that  land  of  sunshine  and  flowers.  Los  Angeles, 
Santa  Barbara,  and  other  places  on  the  sea-coast  are  much 
frequented  by  those  who  are  weary  of  the  eternal  sameness 
and  the  light  and  dry  atmosphere  of  the  mountains,  and  who 
wish  to  find  some  pleasant  place  in  which  to  rest  and  re- 
cuperate. Said  an  enthusiastic  Comstocker,  who  had  just 
returned  from  a  visit  to  the  "Golden  State":  " California, 
sir !  It  is  the  land  of  the  palm,  arid  the  banana  !  Look  abroad 
on  her  vine-clad  hills,  sir!  Beautiful !  Observe  her  glorious 
gardens — gardens  such  as  were  not  in  Eden — the  propped 
trees  of  her  orchards;  her  fields  of  golden  grain;  her  giant 
eucalyptus ;  and  see,  towering  over  all  and  overshadowing  all 
— with  one  hand  resting  on  the  peaks  of  the  Coast  Range 
and  the  other  on  the  summit  of  the  Sierras — her  hoodlum ! 
Beautiful,  sir,  beautiful ! " 


CHAPTER  LVII. 

TRACES   OF    THE   TRICKSY   MINER. 

NOW  that  we  have  had  a  ramble  among   the   lakes  and 
the  valleys  of  the  Sierras,  and  are  rested  and  recuper- 
ated by  reclining  under  the  tall  pines,  and  breathing  the 
cool  air  of  that  region  of  eternal  snow,  we  return  once  more  to 
the  mines  and  the  miners.     A  few  chapters   on  the  tricks  of 
miners,  and  their  characteristics,  good  and  bad,  may  prove  of 
interest  to  readers  residing  in  regions  purely  agricultural. 

The  "  honest  miner  "  is  sometimes  a  little  trickish.  Should 
he  find  that  he  has  made  a  bad  bargain  in  taking  a  contract,  he 
will  sometimes  resort  to  "ways  that  are  dark  "  in  order  to  "play 
even."  A  trick  of  rather  an  original  character  was  some  years 
since  successfully  played  by  some  roving  miners  who  had  taken 
a  contract  to  extend  a  certain  tunnel  at  Virginia  City,  a  distance 
of  ten  feet,  v  The  tunnel  .already  extended  a  distance  of  five  or  six 
hundred  feet,  and  in  exceedingly  hard  rock.  The  miners,  four 
in  number,  contracted  to  drive  the  tunnel  forward  ten  feet,  at 
$30  per  foot,  but  soon  found  they  would  make  nothing  at  this 
price,  owing  to  the  extreme  hardness  and  stubbornness  of  the 
rock. 

When  they  took  the  contract  an  officer  of  the  mine  caused  a 
hole  to  be  drilled  in  the  rock,  and  a  wooden  plug  inserted  just 
even  with  the  face  of  the  tunnel.  The  plug  was  shown  the 
contractors  as  their  starting  point — the  point  from  which  they 
were  to  advance  the  work  a  distance  of  ten  feet.  All  this  was 
quite  satisfactory,  but  when  the  men  began  work  they  soon 
found  that  they  had  undertaken  a  very  unprofitable  job — a  job 
that  would  not  pay  their  "  grub." 

427 


428  A  NEA  T  LITTLE  GAME. 

As  soon  as  they  became  fully  aware  of  this,  the  men  began  to 
consider  how  they  might  best  find  their  way  out  of  the  trouble 
into  which  they  had  involved  themselves.  That  way  they  were  not 
long  in  hitting  upon.  They  drew  out  the  wooden  plug  which 
had  been  placed  in  the  rock  as  the  mark  from  which  they  were 
to  start,  then  putting  a  blast  in  the  hole,  blew  it  out,  completely 
obliterating  all  trace  of  the  place  where  it  had  been  drilled. 
They  then  measured  back  from  the  face  of  the  tunnel  a  distance 
of  ten  feet,  good  strong  measure,  and  drilling  a  hole  in  the  rock 
drove  into  it  the  plug.  This  done,  the  four  men  took  their  ease 
about  town  for  some  days — about  the  length  of  time  that  would 
have  been  required  to  do  the  work — when  they  waited  upon  the 
officer  from  whom  they  had  taken  the  contract  and  informed  him 
that  they  were  ready  to  receive  their  pay  :  also,  putting  in  a 
great  deal  about  the  hardness  of  the  rock  and  the  very  poor 
speculation  the  job  had  proved.  The  secretary,  if  it  was  that 
officer,  hunted  up  a  tape-line  and  went  out  to  the  tunnel  with  one 
of  the  men  to  measure  the  work. 

Mr.  Secretary  found  the  peg  all  right.  Placing  the  end  of 
his  line  upon  it,  he  measured  back  to  the  face  of  the  tunnel  and 
found  the  distance  to  be  ten  feet,  good  and  strong.  The  honest 
sons  of  toil  received  their  $300,  immediately  slung  their  blankets 
across  their  shoulders  and  "  lit  out "  in  search  of  a  new  camp 
and  another  profitable  contract.'/, 

The  trick  was  not  discovered  until  a  "doubting  Thomas,"  a 
member  of  the  company — some  days  after  the  money  had  been 
paid — called  for  a  measurement  of  the  tunnel  from  its  mouth 
back  to  its  face.  The  whole  tunnel  was  then  found  to  be  exactly 
the  same  length,  to  an  inch,  as  before  the  last  contract  was  let. 
The  language  of  the  members  of  the  company  who  were  present 
when  this  last  measurement  was  made,  as  they  groped  their  way 
out  of  the  tunnel,  was  such  as  would  be  discountenanced  in  any 
Sabbath  School  in  the  land. 

"  Doctoring  the  tape-line  "  is  a  trick  that  strolling  miners  have 
sometimes  been  known  to  perform,  when  the  opportunity  was 
found.  This  operation  is  simple  enough.  All  that  is  to  be 
done  is  to  get  hold  of  the  foreman,  superintendent,  or  whoever 
is  likely  to  measure  the  work  ;  and  cut  out  a  few  feet.  The  line 
is  then  neatly  sewed  together  again.  In  order  to  succeed  in 


"DOCTORING"  A    TAPE-LINE.  429 

this  game  it  is  necessary  for  those  playing  it,  to  "  doctor  "  the 
line  a  few  hours  before  their  work  is  to  be  measured — at  night, 
for  instance,  when  they  know  their  work  is  to  be  measured  the 
first  thing  in  the  morning. 

x  A  mining  superintendent,  on  the  Comstock  range,  one  day 
said  to  me :  "  I  had  my  tape-line  '  doctored  '  the  other  day, 
and,  confound  the  fellows !  they  got  away  with  their  trick 
nicely." 

"  How  was  that  ?  "   I  asked. 

"  Well,  I  had  let  a  contract  to  some  boys  who  came  along  to 
sink  a  small  shaft  to  the  depth  of  50  feet.  One  morning  they 
told  me  the  shaft  was  finished,  and  asked  me  to  go  out  and 
measure  the  work. 

One  of  the  men  got  into  the  bucket  and  was  lowered  into  the 
shaft,  holding  the  end  of  the  line,  which  was  reeled  off  as  he 
descended.  When  he  got  down  he  held  his  end  of  the  line  on 
the  bottom  of  the  shaft,  and,  looking  at  my  end,  I  found  the 
shaft  exactly  50  feet  in  depth.  I  paid  the  men  their  money, 
and  they  left.  In  a  day  or  two  I  had  .occasion  to  measure 
something — a  stick  of  timber — and  was  astonished  to  find  it 
much  longer  than  it  looked.  Overhauling  my  tape-line,  I  found 
that  just  six  feet  had  been  cut  out  of  it  and  tl\e  two  parts  neatly 
sewed  together  again.  I  knew  then  that  my  shaft  was  exactly 
44  feet  deep,  and,  I  tell  you,  I  never  was  more  ashamed  of 
anything  in  all  my  life  !  " 

In  1861,  a  miner  who  had  been  out  on  a  prospecting  expedi- 
tion, upon  his  return  to  Silver  City,  the  place  whence  he  started, 
showed  several  business  men  of  the  town  some  very  fine  speci- 
mens of  ore  taken,  as  he  said,  from  a  lead  he  had  discovered  in 
the  foothills  of  the  Sierras,  a  few  miles  below  Carson  City.  He 
proposed  to  put  the  names  of  the  business  men  down  in  his 
notice  of  location,  informing  them  that  all  he  asked  of  them 
was  a  trifle  monthly  to  be  used  in.  the  purchase  of  provisions, 
powder,  fuse,  and  other  supplies.  He  was  ready  to  do  all  the 
work,  provided  these  things  were  furnished  him.  As  the  speci- 
mens shown  contained  a  considerable  percentage  of  gold  and 
silver,  a  number  of  men  allowed  their  names  to  be  used,  and  agreed 
to  be  assessed  for  the  amount  that  would  be  required  in  pushing 
the  proposed  mining  enterprise.  This  was  in  the  fall  of  the 


430  DEVICES  OF  AN  "HONEST"  MAN. 

year.  From  the  time  of  perfecting  the  arrangement  for  working 
his  claim,  and  all  through  the  winter,  the  miner  was  punctually 
at  hand  every  month  for  his  assessments.  He  reported  the 
work  progressing  favorably,  and  brought  specimens  of  ore  that 
showed  steady  improvement ;  each  month  the  ore  was  just  a 
little  better  than  the  last. 

The  men  who  had  been  taken  into  the  company  by  the  honest 
miner,  paid  the  assessments  willingly  and  smilingly;  each  man 
expecting  at  no  distant  day  he  would  be  able  to  sell  for  several 
thousand  dollars  that  which  cost  him  but  a  few  dollars  per  month. 

About  the  middle  of  the  winter  the  assessment  was  more  than 
doubled,  but  none  of  the  stockholders  found  fault  with  this,  as 
the  miner  informed  them  that  his  tunnel  had  attained  such  a 
length  that  he  had  found  it  necessary  to  hire  two  assistants,  to 
help  about  the  blasting  and  wheeling  out  of  the  earth.  As  it 
would  have  looked  a  little  mean  to  have  found  fault  with  the 
miner  about  the  manner  in  which  he  was  doing  the  work,  after 
he  had  as  good  as  given  them  their  shares  in  the  mine,  all  spoke 
well  of  the  plan  of  rushing  along  the  work  by  hiring  assistance. 

All  went  on  swimmingly  until  late  in  the  spring,  the  honest 
miner  appearing  punctually  on  the  first  day  of  each  month  for 
his  regular  assessment.  As  it  was  no  unusual  thing  at  that  day 
to  locate  as  many  as  fifteen  or  twenty  men  in  one  claim,  each 
man  being  set  down  in  the  notice  for  200  feet  of  ground,  the 
assessments,  when  they  were  all  gathered  in,  amounted  to  quite 
a  ^iug  little  sum.  Finally,  when  the  snow  was  all  gone  from 
the  hills,  and  wild-flowers  began  to  bloom  in  the  little  valleys  on 
the  side  of  the  mountains,  the  honest  miner  came  no  more  for 
his  assessment.  The  stockholders  wondered,  yea,  marvelled 
greatly  at  this — the  man  had  heretofore  been  as  true  to  his  time 
as  the  planets  in  their  course.  They  began  to  think  some  acci- 
dent had  befallen  their  honest  friend — feared  he  might  have  been 
hurt  by  a  cave  in  the  tunnel,  There  were  some,  however,  who* 
held  other  views.  "  If  this  man  was  hurt  by  a  cave,"  said  these, 
"  his  assistants  would  most  assuredly  have  come  up  to  Silver 
City  and  made  known  the  fact."  Their  idea  was  that  their  man- 
had  suddenly  drifted  into  a  bonanza  of  immense  richness  and 
that  he  was  going  to  manage  in  some  way  to  cheat  them  out  of 
their  share. 


WHAT  A  STOCKHOLDER  FOUND.  431 

Finally,  one  of  the  party  holding  this  opinion  volunteered  to 
spare  sufficient  time  from  his  business  to  go  and  look  after  the 
mine,  which,  by  the  way,  was  called  the  "  Royal  George."  He 
arrived  in  the  neighborhood  in  which  the  mine  was  understood 
to  be  situated,  and  after  two  days  of  inquiry  at  last  found  a  man 
who  said  he  could  point  out  the  Royal  George  location.  This 
man  led  the  way  to  a  rugged  hill  and  in  its  side,  where  there 
was  a  small  streak  of  decomposed  granite,  pointed  out  a  little 
open  cut,  such  as  any  man  of  ordinary  industry  might  dig  in  half 
a  day.  The  stockholder  thought  his  guide  mistaken  :  "Where 
was  the  tunnel,  where  the  dwelling  of  the  men,  the  ore-dump 
and  the  rest  of  the  works  ?  "  The  guide,  however,  pointed  to  a 
notice  posted  on  the  trunk  of  a  small  cedar,  a  short  distance 
above  the  cut ;  and  proceeding  thither,  the  stockholder  read  th$ 
name  of  the  claim — the  Royal  George — and  below  it  his  own 
name  and  the  names  of  fifteen  or  twenty  of  his  business  friends 
as  the  locators  of — "  this  silver  lode  or  lead,  with  all  dips,  spurs, 
angles  and  variations." 

During  his  journey  back  to  Silver  City,  the  stockholder  had 
plenty  of  time  in  which  to  swear,  and  he  doubtless  made  the 
most  of  the  opportunity.  It  was  afterwards  ascertained  that 
the  honest  miner  who  was  the  discoverer  and  original  locator  of 
the  Royal  George,  never  went  near  the  claim  after  making  the 
location,  but  was  all  the  fall  and  winter  engaged  in  cutting  wood 
on  a  ranche  he  had  taken  up  in  the  Palmyra  Mountains,  many 
miles  away,  and  quite  in  a  different  direction  from  the  region  in 
which  was  located  the  Royal  George.  The  assessments  collect- 
ed were  sufficient  to  keep  the  honest  fellow  in  provisions,  to 
enable  him  to  hire  some  assistance,  and,  indeed,  to  keep  his 
wood-ranche  running  very  nicely  until  he  found  a  purchaser  at  a 
good  round  sum — good  wood-ranches  being  at  that  time  in 
brisk  demand. 


CHAPTER  LVIII. 

THE   PARADISE   OF   BOGUS   MINERS. 

IN  the  early  days  the  roving,  prospecting  miners  who 
swarmed  the  country  were  given  to  tricks  of  all  kinds. 
Not  being  able  to  "  salt "  quartz  veins  as  easily  as  they  had 
salted  the  placer-mines  of  California,  where  they  frequently 
planted  gold  in  the  gravel,  to  the  taking  in  and  undoing  of 
Chinamen  and  greenhorns,  they  often  showed  rich  specimens 
of  ore  obtained  from  mines  on  the  Comstock,  and,  pretending 
that  they  were  obtained  in  some  wild  region  in  distant  moun- 
tains, soon  had  about  them  men  of  capital  from  San  Francisco 
and  other  cities,  who  were  only  too  glad  to  accommodate 
them  with  loans  of  from  $20  to  $50  or  $100. 

These  men  were  always  about  to  return  to  the  place  wherein 
was  situated  their  "  big  finds,"  but  were  able  to  find  no  end  of 
excuses  for  not  going  at  once.  They  must  have  money  with 
which  to  pay  up  their  landlords  before  leaving;  they  must 
have  money  with  which  to  procure  a  proper  outfit,  and  when 
this  had  been  given  they  pretended  to  have  discovered  that 
they  were  being  watched — that  there  were  parties  dogging 
them  day  and  night  for  the  purpose  of  following  them  out 
into  the  mountains  and  crowding  in  and  gobbling  up  the 
lion's  share  of  the  "big  thing"  discovered. 

Thus  these  pretended  prospectors,  who  probably  never 
went  outside  of  the  town,  would  linger  and  delay,  living  on 
the  fat  of  the  land.  They  carried  a  memorandum  book  of 
considerable  size,  in  which  they  could  be  induced,  after  much 
persuasion,  to  place  the  name  of  a  man  of  means  as  one  whose 
good  fortune  it  would  be  to  have  a  share  in  the  wonderful 

432 


SONG   OF   THE    HONEST    MINER. 


"ME  KETCH  UM  THERE."  435 

silver  discovery  when  the  mine  came  to  be  duly  located. 
Once  he  was  thus  fairly  hooked,  the  man  of  money  was  never 
to  refuse  the  jolly  prospector  any  favor,  was  always  to  stand 
ready  to  hand  out  any  sum  that  might  be  called  for,  from  a 
four-bit  piece  to  a  double  eagle;  otherwise,  the  prospecting 
man  might  bring  out  that  little  stub  of  a  pencil  which  he 
always  carried  in  his  vest  pocket — with  which  he  was  to  be 
seen  figuring  most  industriously,  as  though  trying  to  estimate 
the  millions  in  his  mine — and  at  a  single  sweep  scratch  out 
the  name  of  the  moneyed  man  and  his  chance  for. an  interest 
in  one  of  the  biggest  things  of  the  age.  This  kind  of  game 
the  pretended  prospector  would  play  till  found  out  by  all 
with  whom  he  had  dealings,  when  he  would  find  it  necessary 
to  start  business  afresh  in  some  other  camp. 

In  the  early  days  the  Indians  were  supposed  to  know  the 
whereabouts  of  many  rich  mines,  and  men  were  ready  to 
follow  wherever  they  might  lead.  A  man  who  always  had  an 
eye  open  for  the  main  chance,  one  day  saw  a  Piute  Indian 
strolling  about  Virginia  City  with  a  piece  of  very  rich  silver- 
ore  in  his  hand.  He  at  once  secured  that  Indian's  undivided 
attention  by  enticing  him  out  to  a  vacant  lot. 

Would  Jim  tell  where  he  found  the  ore?  Well,  Jim  might 
tell.  Could  he  find  the  place  again?  O  yes;  Jim  could  find 
the  place,  sure.  Was  there  more  ore  of  the  same  kind  in  the 
place  Jim  had  seen?  Heap  more.  Finally,  Jim  agreed  to 
point  out  the  place  in  consideration  of  his  receiving  a  big  red 
blanket  and  two  new  shirts.  Jim  then  led  his  white  acquaint- 
ance up  the  side  of  the  mountain  to  the  dump  of  the  Ophir 
Mining  Company,  and  pointing  out  a  great  heap  of  ore  said: 
"  Me  ketch  um  there.  You  see,  heap  plenty  more  all  same. 
Injun  man  heap  good,  he  no  lie!"  It  was  a  fair  transaction, 
still  the  white  man  was  not  happy. 

The  paradise  of  the  roving  class  of  miners  for  many  years 
was  the  gold-fields  of  California.  There  was  his  "happy 
home,"  the  place  where  he  roamed  and  howled — when  he  felt 
inclined  to  howl.  Put  him  in  a  gulch  where  there  was  free 
water,  water  for  the  use  of  which  in  his  mining  operations  he 
was  obliged  to  pay  no  man  a  cent,  and  he  asked  nothing  more 
— except  that  the  distance  to  the  nearest  place  where  grub 


436  DOIATGS  OF  THE  ROVING  MINER. 

and  grog  could  be  obtained  should  not  exceed  six  or  eight 
miles;  just  a  nice  Sabbath  day's  journey  for  him. 

The  real  simon-pure,  "honest  miner"  was  pretty  apt  to 
"peter"  (fail  to  pay,  become  unproductive)  a  short  time  before 
his  mine  had  "  petered,"  as  he  laid  by  treasure  with  which  to 
tramp  away  in  search  of  fresh  fields.  In  case  of  his  becoming 
"  dead  broke,"  he  often  had  a  hard  time  of  it  with  the  dealers 
in  grub  and  "tarantula  juice,"  for  if  he  had  not  "played  them 
a  string"  some  of  his  friends  of  a  feather  had,  and  in  order  to 
get  trusted  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  do  big  talking  and 
show  big  prospects.  It  was  not  so  in  the  "days  of '49,"  for 
then  all  had  money,  or  if  they  had  not,  no  man  was  refused 
credit  for  provisions,  as  those  who  had  no  gold  to-day  were 
liable  to  have  thousands  to-morrow.  In  the  days  of  the  roving 
class  to  which  the  "honest  miner"  belongs,  however,  many 
of  the  diggings  were  of  the  kind  spoken  of  by  the  Chinaman, 
who  said  that  in  his  claim  you  "  wash  um  one  pan,  catch  um 
one  color." 

When  silver  was  discovered  in  Nevada,  there  was  a  grand 
rush  of  the  roving  miners  of  California  to  the  Comstock 
range,  but  they  did  not  like  the  hard  work  requisite  to  insure 
success  in  quartz-mining,  and  it  was  not  long  before  the 
majority  of  them  made  their  way  back  to  their  old  haunts  in 
the  foothills  of  California,  where  they  could  find  patches  of 
ground  in  which  to  use  their  rockers  and  sluices.  While  they 
remained  in  Nevada,  these  were  the  fellows  who  carried  mem- 
orandum books  and  talked  of  wonders  in  distant  wilds,  big 
things  they  had  found,  but  had  not  yet  fully  appropriated. 

I  shall  conclude  my  account  of  the  honest  miner  by  giving 
"  A  Tribute  to  the  Goddess  of  Poverty,"  by  George  Sand,  and 
a  parody  on  the  "good  goddess,"  in  which  I  shall  try  to  do 
justice  to  the  "honest  miner."  The  tribute  to  the  "  Goddess 
of  poverty"  runs  as  follows  : 

Paths  sanded  with  gold,  verdant  heaths,  ravens  loved  by  the  wild  goats, 
great  mountains  crowned  with  stars,  wandering  torrents,  impenetrable  forests, 
let  the  good  Goddess  pass  through — the  Goddess  of  Poverty  !  Since  the  world 
existed,  since  men  have  been,  she  travels  the  world,  she  dwells  among  men  ; 
she  travels  singing,  and  she  sings  working— the  Goddess,  good  Goddess  of 
Poverty  !  Some  men  assembled  to  curse  her.  They  found  her  too  beautiful, 
too  gay,  too  nimble,  and  too  strong.  '  Pluck  out  her  wings,'  said  they ; 


THE  "GODDESS  OF  POVERTY."  43? 

4  chain  her,  bruise  her  with  blows,  that  she  may  perish — the  Goddess  of 
Poverty ! ' 

They  have  chained  the  good  Goddess ;  they  have  beaten  and  persecuted 
her  ;  but  they  cannot  disgrace  her.  She  has  taken  refuge  in  the  soul  of  poets, 
in  the  soul  of  peasants,  in  the  soul  of  martyrs,  in  the  soul  of  saints — the  good 
Goddess,  the  Goddess  of  Poverty  !  She  has  walked  more  than  the  Wander- 
ing Jew  ;  she  has  travelled  more  than  the  swallows  ;  she  is  older  that  the 
egg  of  the  wren  :  she  has  multiplied  more  upon  the  earth  than  strawberries 
in  Bohemian  forests — the  Goddess,  the  good  Goddess  of  Poverty !  She 
always  makes  the  grandest  and  most  beautiful  things  that  we  see  upon  earth  ; 
it  is  she  who  has  cultivated  the  fields,  and  pruned  the  trees  ;  it  is  she  who 
tends  the  fields,  singing  the  most  beautiful  airs  ;  it  is  she  who  sees  the  first 
peep  of  dawn,  and  receives  the  last  smile  of  evening — the  good  Goddess  of 
Poverty  !  It  is  she  who  carries  the  sabre  and  gun  ;  who  makes  war  and 
conquest ;  it  is  she  who  collects  the  dead,  tends  the  wounded,  and  hides  the 
conquered — the  Goddess,  the  good  Goddess  of  Poverty  ! 

Thy  children  will  cease,  one  day,  to  carry  the  world  on  their  shoulders ; 
they  will  be  recompensed  for  their  labor  and  toil.  The  time  approaches 
when  there  will  be  neither  rich  nor  poor  ;  when  all  men  shall  consume  the 
fruits  of  the  earth,  and  equally  enjoy  the  gifts  of  God.  But  thou  wilt  not  be 
forgotten  in  their  hymns — oh,  good  Goddess  of  Poverty  ! 

TRIBUTE    TO    THE    "  HONEST    MINER  :  " 

Two-bits  to  the  pan  on  the  bed-rock,  bed-rock  pitching, 
nuggets  loved  by  the  dead-broke,  great  chunks  of  gold  in  the 
ground-sluice,  fine  dust  in  the  boxes,  oceans  of  free  water, 
hardest  granite  rim-rock,  let  the  Honest  Miner  pass  through 
— the  bully  Honest  Miner ! 

Since  "indications"  have  existed,  since  miners  have  been, 
he  tramps  the  mountains,  he  dwells  in  brush-shanties,  he 
packs  his  blankets,  he  whistles  as  he  works  his  rocker — the 
Honest  Miner,  the  bully  Honest  miner !  The  grub  dealers 
assembled  to  curse  him.  They  found  him  on  his  muscle,  too 
strong,  too  much  sinew,  too  handy  with  his  six-shooter. 

"  Seize  him  by  the  coat-tails,"  said  they ;  "  roll  him  in  the 
mud,  let  into  him  with  pick-handles,  that  he  may  be  knocked 
into  a  cocked-hat,  that  he  may  kick  the  bucket — the  Honest 
Miner ! " 

They  have  kicked  the  bully  Miner ;  they  have  ducked  him 
in  the  ditch,  but  they  can't  make  him  pungle.  He  has  fallen 
back  on  his  "  dig,"  swears  by  the  soul  of  a  beggar,  by  the  soul 
of  a  Chinaman,  by  the  soul  of  a  Digger,  by  the  soul  of  a  nig- 
ger he  has  nary  red — the  Honest  Miner,  the  bully  Honest 


438  "THE  BULL  Y  HONEST  MINER." 

Miner !  He  has  out-packed  the  Dutch  peddler ;  he  has  trav- 
elled more  than  a  candidate  for  Congress ;  he  is  older  than 
Washoe  butter,  he  is  younger  than  the  beef ;  he  has  drunk 
more  cocktails  than  there  are  shares  on  the  Comstock — the 
Honest  Miner,  the  bully  Honest  miner ! 

He  it  is  that  makes  it  hot  for  the  free-lunch  tables ;  it  is  he 
that  bucks  at  monte;  plays  draw-poker;  fights  the  tiger; 
patronizes  the  Hurdies;  sings  like  a  "  Washoe  canary  ;  "  it  is 
he  who  sees  the  first  peep  of  dawn — through  the  bottom  of  a 
tumbler — through  the  same  cocks  his  eye  on  the  last  smile  of 
evening — the  bully  Honest  Miner !  It  is  he  who  carries  the 
pick,  pan,  and  shovel ;  who  digs  about  croppings ;  who  picks 
up  "  indications,"  pounds  them  in  a  mortar,  and  "  salts  "  the 
"prospect" — the  Honest  Miner,  the  bully  Honest  Miner! 
Thou  wilt,  one  day,  cease  to  carry  sacks  of  "  specimens"  on 
thy  shoulders ;  thou'lt  go  into  thy  last  "  prospect  hole ; "  six 
feet  will  be  the  extent  of  thy  last  claim  on  earth ;  the  stakes 
bearing  thy  last  "  notice  "  will  be  no  further  apart — six  feet 
only ;  but  six  feet  is  a  big  "  interest  "  in  the  "  Eternal  lead,"  if 
properly  "  recorded ;  "  the  "  pay-streak  "  there  is  broad,  the 
bullion  pure — no  base  metal.  Every  miner  claiming  on  this 
lead  shall  find  pay,  even  unto  the  farthest  "  extension." 
Honest  Miner,  we  shall  think  of  thee  as  we  halt  and  read  thy 
last  "  notice."  So  long  as  thou  art  remembered,  thou  shalt 
not  be  forgotten — oh,  bully,  Bully  Honest  Miner !  '•' 


CHAPTER  LIX. 

PAY-DAY    AT 'THE   MINES. 

THE  majority  of  the  miners  at  present  working  in  the  silver- 
mines  of  Nevada  are  honest  in  the  true  and  best  sense  of 
the  word,  and  are  the  most  charitable  men,  as  a  class,  to 
be  found  on  the  continent ;  and  the  same  will  apply  to  the  owners 
and  officers  of  mines. 

The  money  annually  donated  by  the  miners  of  the  leading- 
mines  on  the  Comstock  must  aggregate  a  very  large  sum.  When 
a  brother  miner  is  accidentally  killed  it  is  not  at  all  unusual  for 
the  men  of  the  mine  in  which  he  worked  to  make  up  a  purse  of 
from  $1,000  to  $1,500  for  his  widow  and  orphans. 

A  small  sum  is  generally  given  at  once — say,  two  or  three 
hundred  dollars — then  on  the  first  of  the  next  month,  which  is 
always  pay-day  in  the  mines,  each  man,  as  he  receives  his  wages, 
leaves  in  the  hands  of  the  officer  who  is  "  paying  off"  from  one 
to  two  dollars,  to  be  given  to  the  person  to  be  assisted.  There 
being  in  the  leading  mines  from  five  hundred  to  eight  hundred 
or  one  thousand  men,  a  large  sum  is  in  this  way  speedily  raised. 
Each  man  gives  cheerfully  and  as  a  duty,  for  he  does  not  know 
but  that  on  the  next  pay-day  his  brother-miners  may  be  giving 
a  share  of  their  wages  for  the  support  of  his  own  widow  and 
her  children. 

When  men  are  hurt  in  the  mines  the  companies  always  render 
them  assistance  and  they  are  also  assisted,  if  long  disabled, 
by  their  comrades.  There  are  three  Miners'  Unions,  one  at 
Virginia  City,  one  at  Gold  Hill,  and  the  third  at  Silver  City,  the 
object  of  which  is  the  protection  of  the  interest  of  the  working 
miner  and  the  keeping  up  of  wages  to  the  standard  of  four 
25  439 


440  AMONG  THE  EiMP LOVES. 

dollars  per  day — eight  hours.  These  Unions  have  handsome 
and  commodious  halls  in  which  they  hold  regular  meetings,  and, 
thus  far,  the  principal  officers  and  leading  spirits  of  the  several 
organizations  have  been  men  of  such  honesty  of  purpose  and 
have  shown  such  fairness  in  all  of  their  demands  that  there  has 
been  no  trouble  between  miners  and  mine-owners. 

These  Unions  always  have  money  with  which  to  assist  the 
distressed  in  case  of  emergency.  The  excursions  of  the  Unions, 
and  balls  and  benefits  of  all  kinds,  are  always  very  liberally  pat- 
ronized by  all  classes  of  citizens,  and  thus,  when  their  treasury 
has  been  depleted  by  some  calamity  in  the  mines — as  a  fire — 
large  sums  of  money  are  speedily  placed  in  their  hands, 

The  relations  existing  between  the  miners  and  the  superin- 
tendents are  generally  very  cordial.  The  men  are  always 
respectful  and  obedient  and  the  superintendents  by  no  means 
haughty  or  austere  in  theii* intercourse  with  their  men,  convers- 
ing as  freely  with  a  miner  upon  all  subjects,  when  conversation 
is  in  order,  as  though  he  were  a  millionaire.  The  same  may  be 
said  of  the  foremen  of  the  mines,  most  of  whom  have  been 
raised  from  from  the  ranks,  as  also,  have  not  a  few  of  the 
superintendents.  The  miners  always  have  it  as  an  incentive  to 
good  conduct  and  the  acquiring  of  skill  and  knowledge  in 
mining,  that  they  may  one  day  be  promoted. 

Most  superintendents  take  a  good  deal  of  pride  in  their  men 
— in  having  men  who  are  industrious,  skilful  and  reliable  in 
every  emergency — and  they  not  infrequently  take  an  interest  in 
the  pecuniary  affairs  of  those  who  are  found  to  be  deserving, 
lending  them  a  helping  hand  occasionally  and  always  advising 
them  as  well  as  they  are  capable  of  doing,  when  their  advice  is 
sought  in  regard  to  any  little  investments  they  may  think  of 
making. 

The  miners  in  return  take  a  considerable  degree  of  interest 
and  feel  a  certain  pride  in  a  mine  in  which  they  are  at  work — in 
the  richness  of  its  ores,  the  power  and  perfection  of  its  machi- 
nery, and,  in  short,  in  all  connected  with  it.  As  sailors  are  proud 
of  belonging  to  a  first-class  ship,  so  miners  are  proud  to  be  able 
to  mention  a  first-class  mine  as  that  in  which  they  are  employed. 
In  short,  thus  far  the  relations  of  miner  and  mine-owner  have 
been  all  that  could  be  desired,  and  there  seems  to  be  no  danger 


LABOR  AND  CAPITAL.  443 

of  an)f  trouble  in  the  future,  as  it  is  generally  conceded  that  the 
miner  who  risks  his  life  in  the  mines  and  toils  in  the  sweltering 
lower  levels  should  receive  at  least  four  dollars  per  day. 

The  mining  superintendents  themselves  lead  no  easy  life,  as 
they  make  daily  visits  to  the  mines  in  their  charge,  descend  into 
the  lower  levels,  and  pass  through  and  inspect  all  manner  of 
dangerous  and  disagreeable  places.  Often  they  are  in  the  lower 
levels  for  hours  at  a  time,  and  sometimes  are  obliged  to  descend 
into  the  mine  three  and  four  times  in  one  day. 

As  a  rule  the  superintendents  of  the  mines  on  the  Comstock 
lode  are  men  much  above  the  average  in  understanding,  culture, 
and  education — men  of  marked  ability  and  such  as  would  be 
leaders  in  any  line  of  business  in  which  they  might  engage — 
captains  among  men,  as  it  were.  The  foremen  are  men  of 
much  the  same  class  as  the  superintendents,  but  are  generally 
less  prominently  before  the  public.  Their  time  is  spent  in  the 
mines  among  the  men,  and  though  they  do  not  labor  with  their 
hands,  they  have  by  no  means  an  easy  time  of  it,  as  they  must  be 
almost  constantly  on  their  feet,  and  are  obliged  to  climb  and 
crawl  into  all  manner  of  dangerous  and  difficult  places.  When 
anything  is  going  wrong  in  a  mine — ground  settling,  and  timbers 
giving  way,  a  fire  or  a  rush  of  water — they  have  little  rest  until 
all  is  again  secure. 

But  for  the  better  wages  and  the  honor  of  the  position,  the 
ordinary  miner  has  a  more  desirable  place  in  a  mine  than  that 
occupied  by  a  foreman,  as  he  has  nothing  to  do  but  work  his  shift, 
of  eight  hours,  when  he  can  go  home  and  leave  care  behind — he 
has  no  responsibilities,  nothing  about  which  to  worry.  To  do 
an  honest  day's  work  is  all  his  care. 

The  engineers,  station-tender,  pump-men,  and  the  watchmen 
on  the  lower  levels,  all  occupy  positions  to  which  are  attached 
grave  responsibilities,  the  lives  of  their  fellow  workmen  being 
constantly  in  their  hands.  The  miners  receive  their  pay — $4 
per  day — regularly  every  month,  from  the  first  to  the  third  day 
of  the  month.  Pay-day  is  a  happy  day  with  the  men.  They 
go  to  the  office  of  the  time-keeper  as  they  come  up  out  of  the 
mine,  at  the  change  of  shifts,  and  "  get  their  time  "  for  the 
month — that  is  they  get  a  slip  of  paper  on  which  is  an  account 
of  the  number  of  days  they  have  worked  during  the  month. 


444  A  HE  A  VY  PA  Y-LIST. 

With  this  they  go  to  the  office  of  the  secretary  or  head-clerk  of 
the  mine  where  they  form  in  a  line,  as  lines  are  sometimes  formed 
in  a  post-office  or  at  the  polls  on  an  election  day,  and  each  man 
in  his  turn  receives  his  wages. 

Over  half  a  million  dollars  are  paid  out  on  the  first  of  every 
month  along  the  Comstock,  to  miners,  mechanics,  and  others 
who  are  employed  in  and  about  the  mines.  The  monthly  pay- 
rolls of  some  of  the  leading  companies  are  as  follows  :  Consoli- 
dated Virginia,$9o,ooo  ;  Crown  Point,  $90,000 ;  Belcher,  $65,000  ; 
Ophir,  $33,000;  Savage,  $22,000;  Chollar-Potosi,  $25,000; 
Hale  &  Norcross  $20,000 ;  and  a  long  list  of  companies  whose 
pay-rolls  amount  to  from  $10,000  to  $15,000  per  month.  Even 
at  mines  where  they  are  merely  sinking  a  prospecting-shaft,  from 
ten  to  fifteen  men  are  employed  and  there  is  paid  out  per  month 
in  the  shape  of  wages  from  $1,500  to  $2,000 — as  mechanics, 
carpenters,  blacksmiths,  and  engineers,  receive  from  five  to 
seven  dollars  per  day. 

Besides  the  money  that  is  paid  out  monthly  to  the  men  about 
the  mines,  the  wages  of  the  men  employed  in  the  many  mills 
about  Virginia  City,  and  Gold  Hill,  and  along  the  Carson  River 
amount  to  a  large  sum.  There  may  be  added  to  this  the  wages 
of  the  men  employed  on  the  Virginia  and  Truckee  Railroad, 
over  which  ore  is  sent  to  the  mills,  and  lumber,  timber,  and 
wood  are  brought  to  the  mines;  also,  the  men  employed  in  the 
saw-mills  and  in  other  branches  of  the  lumbering  business  in 
the  mountains  are  paid  monthly,  and  all  this  money  is  expended 
in  the  towns  along  the  Comstock. 

Such  large  sums  paid  out  every  month  to  working  men — who 
scatter  it  broadcast  in  the  land — causes  money  to  be  quite  plen- 
tiful in  all  the  towns.  In  case  of  business  being  a  little  dull 
toward  the  close  of  any  month,  merchants,  shopkeepers,  and 
others  do  not  grumble.  They  merely  say :  "  Never  mind,  the 
pay-days  are  near  at  hand  !  "  It  is  not  as  in  agricultural  com- 
munities, where  when  a  bad  crop  is  made  all  must  wait  for 
another  year  before  good  times  can  be  expected. 

Besides  the  money  paid  out  every  month  in  the  shape  of  wages, 
dividends  are  paid  each  month  by  such  companies  as  are  in  a 
sufficiently  flourishing  condition  to  thus  gladden  the  hearts  of 
their  stockholders.  The  Consolidated  Virginia  alone  pays 
$1,080,000  per  month  in  dividends. 


1 STEAMER  DA  V."  445 


In  'many  kinds  of  business  the  persons  employed  are  paid 
every  week,  and  the  merchants,  and  business  men  in  general, 
square  all  accounts  of  transactions  among  themselves  every 
Monday ;  hence  Monday  in  Virginia  City  is  sometimes  jocularly 
termed  "  steamer  day,"  as  corresponding  to  the  old  *'  steamer 
day  "  of  San  Francisco — the  day  when  the  steamer  sailed  for 
New  York,  and  when  all  business  men  were  expected  to  make 
good  all  their  coin  contracts. 

When  the  miners  receive  their  wages  the  first  business  of  the 
unmarried  men  is  to  pay  the  rent  of  their  lodging  room,  and  the 
next  is  to  pay  their  bill  at  the  restaurant,  while  the  married  men 
settle  their  bills  at  the  meat-markets,  the  grocery  and  provision 
stores,  and  the  dry-goods  stores.  Happy  is  the  man  who  can 
square  up  every  month  and  have  a  few  dollars  to  put  by  for  a 
rainy  day.  Some,  as  in  every  country,  are  always  behind,  but 
the  most  miserable  of  the  miners  are  those  who  gamble.  Much 
of  the  time  they  are  working  to  pay  for  a  "  dead  horse,"  for  when 
they  have  lost  their  wages  they  borrow  as  long  as  they  can  find 
friends  to  lend.  But  whether  gambled  away  or  judiciously  and 
economically  expended,  the  money  paid  out  each  month  to 
laboring  men  makes  lively  times  for  a  fortnight  or  more — all 
have  coin  jingling  in  their  pockets,  even  check  guerillas  and 
thieves. 


CHAPTER  LX. 

THE   HOTTEST   PLACE   IN    THE  MINE. 

"/CURBSTONE  brokers"  and  many  other  dabblers  in 

\^>1  stocks  rely  a  good  deal  upon  "points"  obtained  from 
miners,  in  regard  to  what  is  going  on  in  the  lower 
levels  of  the  mines.  It  probably  happens  once  in  a  while 
that  a  miner  gives  some  friend  on  the  "  outside  "  early  news 
of  a  rich  strike  in  the  mine  in  which  he  is  employed,  but  it  is 
generally  on  condition  that  the  "  outsider "  purchase  and 
carry  for  him  a  considerable  amount  of  the  stock  of  the  mine. 

In  order  to  keep  himself  well  informed  in  regard  to  the 
mines,  in  this  way,  the  speculator  must  not  only  have  a  man 
in  each  mine  but  must  have  a  man  on  nearly  every  level  of 
each  mine,  as  the  miners  are  not  allowed  to  ramble  about  at 
will  in  the  lower  levels  of  any  of  the  leading  mines.  To  fee 
a  man  on  each  level  of  half  a  dozen  mines,  even,  would  be  a 
very  expensive  means  of  obtaining  early  information. 

As  the  miner  who  is  merely  receiving  a  fee  occasionally  for 
such  "  points "  as  he  may  be  able  to  'furnish  is  desirous  of 
receiving  a  "  price"  as  frequently  as  possible,  he  is  somewhat 
addicted  to  the  manufacture  in  a  dull  time. 

Men  working  in  a  large  and  strictly-regulated  mine  have 
little  opportunity  of  knowing  when  a  development  has  been 
made  at  a  particular  point  in  a  mine,  or  anything  about  the 
value  of  any  body  of  ore  that  may  be  encountered. 

When  a  cross-cut  is  being  run  at  a  point  where  it  is  thought 
that  ore  will  be  found,  the  work  is  carried  on  by  what  is 
called  a  "secret  shift."  This  shift  is  composed  of  the  oldest 
and  most  trustworthy  men  in  the  mine — men  who  will  work 

446 


SECRECY.  447 


for  weeks  in  a  drift  that  sparkles  with  native  silver  and  yet 
remain  as  mute  as  the  same  number  of  oysters ,  when  above, 
circulating  among  those  of  the  surface-world.  These  secret- 
shift  men  generally  find  their  silence  profitable.  They  are 
helped  to  a  few  shares  of  the  stock  at  the  low  figure  at  which 
it  is  probably  selling  when  the  ore  is  found,  and  pocket  what- 
ever advance  there  may  be  in  the  stock  when  the  nature  and 
extent  of  the  new  development  have  been  made  known. 

The  men  working  on  a  secret  shift  are  not  sworn  to  secrecy, 
and  it  is  seldom  that  they  are  even  pledged — they  know  why 
they  are  selected,  and  what  is  expected  of  them.  When  a 
secret  has  been  divulged  and  the  guilty  person  cannot  be 
discovered,  every  man  on  that  shift  is  discharged,  and  not  one 
of  them  will  again  be  employed  on  a  secret  shift  in  any  mine 
until  the  real  culprit  has  been  found.  Men  working  in  any 
kind  of  place  in  the  mines  are  very  cautious  about  telling 
what  is  going  on  underground,  as  any  valuable  information 
given  on  the  surface  is  soon  sown  broadcast,  and  is  not  long  in 
reaching  the  ear  of  the  superintendent,  foreman,  o.r  some 
other  officer  of  the  mine,  when  it  is  quickly  traced  to  the  man 
who  brought  it  up  from  the  lower  levels.  This  being  the 
case,  many  of  the  men,  when  "pumped"  for  "points,"  invent 
some  story  of  a  rich  development  at  some  point  in  the  mine 
where  all  is  country  rock  or  mere  barren  porphyry.  These 
stories  circulate  as  rapidly  as  the  others,  but  a  quiet  smile  is 
all  the  attention  they  receive  from  the  officers  of  the  mine — 
they,  at  such  times,  remain  mute  and  neutral. 

During  the  great  stock  excitement  in  1872,  a  gentleman 
who  had  several  tho*usand  dollars  that  he  desired  to  invest  in 
stocks,  cultivated  the  acquaintance  of  a  man  who  had  the 
appearance  of  being  a  miner,  and  soon  gave  him  to  under- 
stand that  in  case  he  could  give  him  any  points  in  regard  to 
what  was  going  on  in  certain  mines,  they  would  invest  and 
divide  the  profits.  The  man  thus  "approached"  was  a  miner, 
but  was  out  of  employment,  was  at  work  in  no  mine  on  the 
lead.  However,  he  was  willing  to  do  something.  He  saw 
that  the  gentleman  in  search  of  points  was  a  stranger  in  the 
town,  and  felt  that  a  good  thing  to  do  would  be  to  take  him 
in.  Therefore  points  were  promised.  In  a  day  or  two  the 


448  "BOOMING? 


alert  miner  made  his  appearance  at  the  hotel  of  the  stranger, 
and  beckoning  him  out,  furnished  him  a  big  point  in  regard 
to  a  grand  development  in  a  certain  Gold  Hill  mine,  and  a 
large  number  of  shares  were  at  once  purchased. 

This  was  just  at  the  beginning  of  the  excitement,  and  the 
next  day  there  was  a  considerable  advance  in  the  price  of  the 
stock.  The  man  of  points  said  the  newly-discovered  ore-body 
was  improving.  Day  after  day  the  stock  continued  to  rise, 
and  the  pseudo-miner  swore  it  was  the  richest  thing  he  ever 
saw  in  any  mine  on  the  Comstock.  He  seemed  greatly  ex- 
cited, and  was  not  made  easy  in  mind  until  he  had  sworn  the 
gentleman  to  secrecy,  saying  that  if  even  a  whisper  in  regard 
to  the  strike  got  abroad  he  would  lose  his  place — would 
almost  be  kicked  out  of  the  mine. 

What  the  fellow  said  about  the  strike  seemed  to  be  gospel 
truth,  as  the  next  day  after  he  had  described  the  appearance 
of  the  silver-caverns  in  which  he  was  daily  delving,  the  stock 
went  up  like  a  rocket  in  the  San  Francisco  Stock  Board. 

"Aha!"  cried  the  gentleman,  "they  have  found  it  out 
already  down  at  the  Bay ! " 

For  two  or  three  days  the  stock  "  boomed  " — for  every 
stock  was  just  then  booming — then  it  began  to  go  down  a 
little  and  "see-sawed"  for  a  day  or  two.  As  soon  as  the 
latter  symptom  became  manifest,  the  well-informed  miner 
came  to  his  stranger  friend  wearing  a  long  face  and  told  him 
to  sell  at  once.  The  gentleman  was  inclined  to  think  that 
by  holding  on  a  day  or  two  the  stock  would  go  to  a  higher 
figure  than  it  had  yet  reached,  but  on  hearing  this  the  miner 
came  out  with  another  great  secret,  and  the  stranger  was 
again  sworn.  The  ore-body  had  pinched  out  in  porphyry, 
and  in  cross-cutting  through  what  at  first  appeared  to  be  a 
vast  body  of  immensely  rich  ore,  it  had  been  found  a  mere 
shell,  all  the  rest  was  barren  quartz.  Hearing  this,  the  gen- 
tleman sold  at  once,  and  the  pair  of  speculators  divided  over 
$6,000  profit.  The  joke  of  the  whole  affair  was  that  no  work 
was  being  done  in  the  mine  whose  stock  they  had  been  deal- 
ing in,  nor  had  a  pick  been  struck  in  any  part  of  it  for  over 
two  years. 

Some  of  the  pranks  of  the  miners  are  quite  amusing.    The 


THE  HOTTEST   PLACE. 


ADVENTURES  OF  A  FRENCH  COUNT.  449 

following  is  an  instance:  At  the  time  that  the  i,4oo-foot 
level  of  the  Crown  Point  mine  was  being  opened,  and  while 
it  was  boiling  hot,  a  Frenchman,  a  stranger  and  a  very  suave 
and  enthusiastic  young  man  withal,  called  at  the  hoisting- 
works  and  asked  permission  to  descend  and  examine  the 
lower-levels.  The  foreman  was  very  busy  at  the  time,  and 
would  have  refused  the  request  had  it  been  preferred  in  lan- 
guage less  polite  or  manner  less  eager  and  earnest.  But, 
seeing  the  man's  soul  in  his  eyes,  and  that  he  was  almost 
trembling  with  excess  of  desire,  he  thought  it  would  be  posi- 
tive cruelt-y  to  deny  him  the  favor  he  craved.  After  some 
hesitation,  with  the  Frenchman's  pleading  eyes  still  fixed 
upon  him,  the  foreman  said  it  was  not  a  proper  time  for 
admitting  visitors;  that  he  was  particularly  engaged  at  the 
moment  and  could  not  accompany  him;  yet,  some  miners 
being  about  to  descend  to  the  lower  levels,  he  might,  if  so 
inclined,  go  down  in  their  company.  The  little  Frenchman 
was  delighted.  It  was  just  the  arrangement  that  suited  him, 
and  he  was  profuse  in  his  thanks. 

Leaving  the  native  of  "sunny  France""  for  a  moment,  the 
foreman  advanced  to  where  the  workmen  were  preparing  to 
descend  the  shaft,  and  told  them  he  was  going  to  send  a 
Frenchman  down  with  them  to  see  the  lower  levels,  and  that 
one  of  them  could  bring  him  up  after  he  had  satisfied  his 
curiosity.  Being  somewhat  vexed  at  having  to  send  the  man 
down  at  all,  the  foreman  added  to  his  other  instructions: 
"  And,  confound  him,  put  him  into  the  hottest  hole  you  can 
find ! " 

"  All  right,  sir,"  cheerily  answered  the  men. 

The  Frenchman  was  told  to  get  aboard  the  cage,  when  down 
he  was  sent  in  the  same  clothing  in  which  he  came  to  the 
mine — coat,  hat,  and  all.  Now  the  miners  in  whose  hands 
the  Frenchman  had  fallen,  were  all  fellows  pf  "  infinite  jest" 
— ready  for  any  kind  of  deviltry.  They  considered  that  in 
the  parting  words  of  their  foreman—"  Put  him  into  the 
hottest  place  you  can  find,"  they  were  given  permission  to 
play  the  Frenchman  almost  any  trick  their  humor  might 
suggest. 

On  arriving  at  the  i,4oo-foot  level,  while  moving  about 


450  LEFT  IN  THE  DARK. 

lighting  candles,  the  plan  hit  upon  for  "doing"  their  French 
friend  was  whispered  among  the  miners.  They  showed  their 
man  about  for  a  time,  greatly  to  his  delight.  He  admired 
everything;  yet  he  could  but  exclaim  occasionally:  "Begar 
zee  atmosphere  which  exist  here  be  fearful  intemperate ! " 
At  length  the  miners  informed  the  visitor  that  they  were 
about  to  conduct  him  to  the  most  interesting  point  in  the 
mine — to  the  most  advanced  drift,  the  place  in  which  all  the 
hopes  of  the  company  were  centered.  They  honestly  stated 
that  the  place  was  very  hot,  but  if  he  could  stand  the  heat  he 
should  see  a  spot  the  eye  of  no  "outsider"  had  yet  viewed, 
but  which  many  would  give  thousands  of  dollars  to  behold. 

"  Oh,"  cried  the  Frenchman,  "  it  will  be  one  grand  plaisir ! 
I  sail  be  ver  delighted !  Nossing  could  be  more  agreeable. 
Bote,  now  zat  I  sink  of  it,  I  would  prefer  zat  I  have  leave  me 
coat  at  zee  surface." 

The  miners  led  the  way  to  a  long  drift,  in  the  end  of  which 
had  been  bored  a  deep  drill-hole,  from  which  flowed  a  stream 
of  water  so  hot  that  eggs  had  actually  been  boiled  in  it  in  a 
few  minutes.  All  of  the  rock  forming  the  walls  of  the  drift 
was  so  hot  that  to  place  the  naked  hand  upon  it  was  painful. 
The  crowbars  and  drills  lying  back  near  the  face  of  the  drift 
were  so  -hot  that  they  could  not  be  handled. 

Into  the  very  end  of  this  drift  the  miners  led  the  enthusi- 
astic little  man,  and  began  showing  him  the  ore  there  to  be 
seen.  Soon  the  perspiration  poured  in  streams  from  his  face 
and  a  small  rill  ran  from  the  end  of  his  nose.  He  opened  his 
vest  and  clutched  at  his  necktie  to  get  air,  but  still  he  was  not 
utterly  discouraged.  Said  he,  rubbing  the  water  from  his 
eyes :  "  How  ver  true  it  is  for  you  gentlemen  vich  vork  in 
zee  mines  what  is  observe  in  zee  Bible,  in  zee  curse  to  the 
first  parent — '  In  zee  perspiration  of  you  forehead  sail  you  eat 
of  zee  loaf  of  bread!'" 

About  this  time,  in  some  unaccountable  way,  all  of  the 
candles  at  once  went  out.  Pitchy  darkness  prevailed.  The 
miners  charged  their  French  friend  to  stand  perfectly  still 
and  they  would  go  out  and  re-light  their  candles.  The  poor 
devil  only  said : 

"  Veil,  veil,  ziz  is  to  me  incomprehensible  and  must  be  one 


MAKING  IT  HO  T  FOR  HIM.  451 

chance  extraordenaire  for  all  zee  candaile  to  become  extin- 
guish so  very  instantaneous.  Je  suppose  it  was  one  accident. 
Make  all  zee  dispatch  vich  is  possible.  Zee  heat  of  zee 
atmosphere  is  indescriptible ! "  Soon  after  this  little  scene 
in  the  drift,  Sam  Jones,  superintendent  of  the  mine,  came 
along  through  the  level  with  a  lantern  in  his  hand.  Much  to 
his  surprise,  he  found  several  men  standing  in  the  dark  before 
a  drift,  the  mouth  of  which  they  had  carefully  closed  with 
"  logging  "  and  pieces  of  boards. 

"  Hello  !  "  cried  he,  "  what  are  you  all  doing  here  in  the 
dark  ?  And  why  is  the  mouth  of  this  drift  closed  ? "  No  one 
volunteered  a  remark,  each  waiting  for  the  other  probably. 

"  Have  you  seen  a  young  Frenchman  on  this  level  ?  "  asked 
the  superintendent,  "  the  foreman  above  tells  me  he  sent  him 
down  here." 

Now  some  one  had  to  speak. 

"  Yes ;  "  said  one  of  the  men,  "  he  is  here." 

"Here!     Where?" 

"  Back  in  the  end  of  the  drift." 

"  What  in  thunder  is  he  doing  there  ?  " 

"  Waiting  for  a  light,  I  think." 

"  In  the  devil's  name !  what  trick  is  this  ?  "  cried  the  super- 
intendent. "  Don't  you  know  that  the  man  is  an  ex-count 
and  a  big  French  banker — a  man  of  note  ?  " 

"  Can't  help  that.  The  foreman  told  us  to  show  him  the 
hottest  place  in  the  mine,  and  we're  a-showin'  it  to  him — and 
makin'  it  as  hot  for  him  as  we  know  how." 

In  an  instant  the  superintendent  had  torn  away  the  planks 
and  logging,  and  was  making  his  way  back,  lantern  in  hand, 
to  where  the  poor  devil  of  a  Frenchman  was  roasting — liter- 
ally roasting,  for  the  whole  drift  was  as  hot  as  a  furnace  seven 
times  heated,  and  the  man  was  more  dead  than  alive.  Ele- 
vating his  lantern,  to  get  a  view  of  the  foreign  gentleman, 
the  superintendent  fo^nd  him  standing  with  coat  and  vest 
across  his  arm,  and  collar  and  necktie  in  his  hand.  He  was 
wilted  till  as  limber  as  a  dish-rag. 

"Ze  Cod  on  'bove  be  praise,"  he  cried,  "  zat  you  have  come! 
I  am  just  on  zee  point  to  expire.  Zee  distemperament  of  zee 
place  have  increase  immediatement  after  you  retire  in  more 


452  RESCUED. 


as  ten-fold  progression."  Then,  wiping  the  blinding  perspi- 
ration from  his  eyes,  he  surveyed  Mr.  Jones  for  a  moment  in 
surprise.  "  Ah !  pardon  me  monsieur,"  he  cried,  "  I  have  not 
first  zee  plaisir  to  behold  you  before.  I  mistake  you  for  zee 
gentlemen  who  have  depart  wis  the  purpose  to  re-enlight 
zee  candaile.  Excuse  me  zat  I  trouble  you  wis  zee  narra- 
tion, bote  we  meet  here  wis  one  leetle  accident,  sare;  one 
leetle  accident  which  have,  how  you  call  it?  exterminate, 
estinguis'  zee  entire  of  the  candaile,  sare." 

"I  am  sorry  that  anything  so  unpleasant  should  have 
occurred,"  said  the  superintendent,  "  and  I  assure  you,  sir,  I 
shall  look  into  this  matter." 

"  You  are  too  kind,  monsieur — too  kind  !  I  assure  you 
sare,  zat  I  have  remain  here  until  zis  moment  in  parfaite  tran- 
quilety;  bote  now,  sare,  I  vill  depart,  if  you  please.  Vill  you 
have  zee  complaisance  to  put  me  on  zee  machine,  and  elevate 
me  to  zee  surfaice  immediatement?  My  God,  sare,  I  expire 
wis  zee  heat !  Elevate  me,  monsieur,  wis  dispatch — wis  all 
dispatch.  I  vill  not  remain  for  zee  gentleman  who  have  go 
wis  zee  purpose  to  re-enlight  zee  candaile.  Some  ozzaire  time 
I  vill  make  zem  my  apology." 

In  all  haste  the  superintendent  led  the  way  to  the  main  shaft, 
the  polite  little  Frenchmen  hurrying  after,  saying:  Yes,  some 
ozzaire  time  I  moos  make  to  zem  my  apology."  They  were 
soon  aboard  the  cage,  and,  a  minute  after,  at  the  noo-foot 
level.  Here  the  superintendent  was  obliged  to  stop  a  few 
minutes,  but  told  the  Frenchman  that  if  he  would  get  off  and 
wait,  they  would  go  up  together  on  the  next  cage.  But  to 
this  the  half-dead  man  would  not  listen.  He  stuck  to  the 
cage  like  grim  death,  and  said : 

"Let  zee  machine  continue  to  ascend  up,  if  you  please,  sare, 
I  vill  be  elevate  on  zee  surfaice  promptment — wis  all  despatch, 
sare." 

The  superintendent  then  sent  a  trusty  miner  up  with  the 
roasted  ex-count.  When  daylight  was  reached  the  little 
fellow  was  himself  again. 

"  Ah ! "  cried  he,  •*  how  ver'  beautiful  is  zee  cool  air,  zee 
light  of  zee  glorious  sun,  and  all  of  God's  work,  how  grand  ! 
I  have  make  one  terrible  experience ;  bote  I  would  not  have 
miss  him,  sare,  no,  not  for  many  dollaires!" 


POLITE  TO  THE  LAST.  453 

He  then  tried  to  make  the  man  who  came  up  the  shaft  with 
him  accept  a  five-dollar  gold  piece.  Not  succeeding  in 
this  he  made  him  go  with  him  to  the  nearest  saloon  and  get  a 
glass  of  beer.  Not  satisfied  with  this,  and  the  men  below 
again  coming  into  his  mind,  he  paid  the  barkeeper  for  two 
buckets  of  beer,  telling  the  miner  with  him  that  he  wished  it 
given  to  the  men  who  went  to  light  the  candle. 

"  I  have,"  said  he,  "  been  ver  impolite  to  come  away  before 
zee  return  of  zee  gentlemen  who  have  gone  to  re-enlight  zee 
candaile.  Veil,  zat  was  one  ver  curious  accident  and  bring 
to  me  one  ver  terrible  experience  of  zee  discomfort  of  zee 
heat  at  zat  place  of  remarkable  interest." 

Although  the  French  count  doubtless  suffered  terribly 
while  shut  up  in  the  drift,  with  boiling  water  and  heated  rock 
all  about  him,  his  "  discomfort,"  after  all,  was  not  much  greater 
than  was  that  of  the  miners  who  played  him  the  trick  while 
drinking  the  beer  he  sent  them — though  their  torture  was  of 
a  different  kind.  Most  amply,  yet  most  innocently,  had  the 
Frenchman  avenged  himself. 


CHAPTER  LXI. 

UNDERGROUND   BATTLES 

IN  the  early  days  of  Washoe,  fights  between  rival  claimants 
of  mining  ground  were  frequent,  and  often  stubbornly  con- 
tested and  bloody.  These  fights  sometimes  occurred  upon 
the  surface,  sometimes  far  down  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth — one 
company  having  broken  into  ground  claimed  by  another  with  a 
drift  or  a  tunnel.  On  such  occasions  the  rival  companies  armed 
and  fortified  underground  as  well  as  upon  the  surface. 

Sometimes  a  company  tried  to  smoke  their  rivals  out,  and  in 
this  they  generally  succeeded,  but  were,  in  most  instances,  them- 
selves smoked  out  as  well,  by  their  own  bonfires  and  stink-pots. 
Of  late  years,  however,  most  difficulties  in  regard  to  the  owner- 
ship of  mining  property  have  been  settled  in  the  courts.  Men 
at  last  began  to  realize  that  battles  with  guns,  pistols,  and  knives 
settled  nothing;  no  matter  how  many  lives  were  sacrificed, 
matters  had  to  be  brought  before  the  proper  tribunal  at  last. 
Yet  a  little  of  the  old  warlike  spirit  is  occasionally  manifested 
even  at  the  present  day. 

The  last  mining  fight,  of  any  importance,  on  the  Comstock 
lode,  occurred  at  the  Justice  mine  on  the  evening  of  Saturday, 
October  3,  1874,  which  resulted  in  the  death  of  five  men  in  about 
as  many  minutes. 

It  may  be  of  interest  to  give  the  particulars  in  regard  to  the 
last  affair,  as  it  will  serve  to  illustrate  the  manner  in  which  these 
battles  in  the  mines  are  fought,  and  show  in  what  way  they  are 
sometimes  brought  on.  The  fight  .occurred  at  about  6  o'clock 
in  the  evening,  at  what  is  known  as  the  Waller's  Defeat  Shaft 
of  the  Justice  mine,  situated  on  Gold  Canon,  between  Gold  Hill 

454 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  TROUBLE.  457 

and  Silver  City.  The  battle  was  between  two  factions  of  the 
Justice  Mining  Company,  contending  for  possession  of  the  mine. 
There  had  for  some  time  been  trouble  among  the  trustees  of  the 
company,  and  on  the  day  of  the  fight  the  president  of  the  com- 
pany appointed  a  new  superintendent  and  instructed  him  to 
take  possession  of  the  mine. 

It  was  the  talk  that  the  old  superintendent  would  not  give  up 
the  mine,  and  there  were  rumors  during 'the  afternoon  that  a 
fight  might  be  expected,  and  many  were  talking  about  going 
dowrf  to  the  Justice  to  "  see  the  fun."  Finally  the  brother  of 
the  newly-appointed  superintendent,  as  a  deputy,  and  accom- 
panied by  a  number  of  men,  went  down  to  the  mine,  and  had  a 
talk  with  the  foreman  in  charge  about  taking  possession  of  the 
works.  The  foreman  said  he  was  ready  to  give  possession 
whenever  the  other  came  with  proper  authority,  but  as  things 
then  stood  he  would  prefer  to  hear  from  his  superior,  the  old 
superintendent,  before  doing  anything. 

Meantime  the  newly-appointed  superintendent  was  in  Virginia 
City  looking  for  the  old  superintendent,  in  order  to  show  him 
the  dispatches  he  had  received  from  San  Francisco,  instructing 
him  to  take  possession  of  the  mine  ;  but  he  failed  to  find  him  and 
left  the  city.  About  this  time  the  old  Superintendent,  who  was  in 
Virginia  City,  sent  a  note  to  his  foreman  at  the  mine  instructing 
him  to  give  the  newly-appointed  officer  possession  of  the  works 
at  both  shafts — the  old  Justice  and  the  Waller's  Defeat  Shaft. 

Before  this  note  reached  its  destination  and  before  the  two 
superintendents — the  old  and  the  new— had  met,  the  men  them- 
selves had  precipitated  the  fight.  There  were  with  the  deputy 
superintendent  twelve  men  who  were  to  be  used  in  holding 
possession  of  the  two  shafts  in  case  of  their  being  given  up  by 
the  men  in  charge.  All  of  these  men  were  armed  with  pistols, 
and  some  of  them  had  been  drinking  enough  to  make  them  feel 
inclined  to  have  things  go  about  as  they  wished.  They  grew 
impatient  on  account  of  the  delay  in  giving  possession  of  the 
works  and  presently  left  the  Justice  shaft,  and  started  for  the 
Waller's  Defeat,  two  or  three  hundred  yards  distant. 

The  deputy  superintendent  had  started  to  go  to  Gold  Hill, 
when,  looking  back,  he  saw  his  men  moving  in  a  body  toward 
the  Waller's  Defeat  Shaft.  Fearing  trouble,  he  turned  and 


458  THE  CONTEST. 


hastened  after  them.  When  he  overtook  them  they  were  close 
to  the  building  over  the  shaft  and  were  still  advancing.  It  was 
well  understood  that  there  were  in  this  building  several  armed 
men,  and  he  ran  before  his  men  and  tried  to  induce  them  to  halt. 

At  the  same  time  a  voice  from  the  hoisting-works  over  the 
shaft  commanded  them  to  stop.  It  was  now  growing  dark,  and 
the  persons  in  the  building  could  not  be  seen.  As  the  deputy 
was  still  trying  to  keep  his  men  back,  two  of  them  pushed  past 
him  and  advanced  toward  the  building.  One  of  these  raised 
his  revolver  as  he  moved  forward,  and  instantly  a  volley  was 
fired  from  the  building.  Three  men  fell,  two  of  whom  died  on 
the  ground,  while  the  third,  who  was  shot  through  the  spine  and 
abdomen,  lived  but  a  few  hours. 

A  short  parley  now  ensued.  The  deputy  superintendent  told 
those  within  the  building  that  he  desired  to  have  a  talk  with 
them ;  to  tell  them  what  he  wanted  to  do.  He  said  that  such 
work  as  they  were  having  must  not  go  on ;  that  he  did  not  come 
there  to  have  a  battle  with  those  in  possession  of  the  works. 
He  then  asked  if  he  might  enter  the  building.  A  voice  said  he 
might  come  in,  if  he  came  alone ;  but  if  another  man  attempted 
to  follow  him  they  would  fire  on  the  whole  party.  The  deputy 
then  advanced  to  the  bifilding,  and  had  just  raised  his  foot  to 
step  into  the  door  when  those  inside  fired,  and  he  fell  dead  in 
his  tracks.  One  of  his  men  ran  up  to  bring  away  his  body  and 
received  a'charge  of  buckshot  in  the  breast  that  laid  him  dead 
beside  the  deputy.  During  this  time  several  shots  were  fired 
into  the  building  by  those  on  the  outside,  but  without  effect. 
After  these,  scattering  shots  there  was  an  entire  cessation  of 
hostilities  on  both  sides,  and  outside  parties — persons  not 
belonging  to  either  faction — were  allowed  to  approach  and 
carry  away  the  dead. 

A  gentleman  who  was  on  the  ground  through  the  whole  affair, 
considered  the  advance  of  the  deputy's  party  as  being  very  ill- 
advised,  and  quite  against  the  wishes  of  the  deputy  himself,  as 
that  gentleman  did  all  in  his  power  to  keep  his  men  back. 
Much  rashness  and  hot-headedness  was  exhibited  on  both  sides. 
It  was  said  that  the  reason  the  deputy  was  fired  on  was  that  as 
he  advanced  to  the  door  of  the  works  some  of  his  men  moved 
forward  behind  him.  The  dead  were  carried  to  a  small  cabin 


THE  SLAIN.  459 


near  at  hand,  and  when  they  had  been  decently  composed,  with 
handkerchiefs  tied  over  their  heads  and  under  their  chins,  they 
presented  a  ghastly  spectacle,  as  they  were  still  in  the  clothes 
in  which  they  fell,  all  of  which  were  soaked  in  blood.  Their 
shirts  were  open,  and  the  wounds  of  those  shot  in  the  breast  were 
exposed  to  sight.  To  stand  in  the  little  cabin,  twelve  by  four- 
teen feet  in  size,  and  see  the  whole  floor  covered  with  dead 
bodies,  one  seemed  to  be  on  the  edge  of  a  field  whereon  had 
just  been  fought  some  great  and  bloody  battle. 

The  news  of  the  fight  brought  not  less  than  a  thousand  persons 
to  the  spot,  but  all  gave  the  building  over  the  Waller's  Defeat 
shaft  a  wide  berth.  All  was  dark  and  silent  as  the  grave  within 
the  building.  This  stillness  and  darkness  seemed  ominous. 
No  one  wished  to  venture  near  it,  as  all  said  it  was  quite  certain 
that  the  men  within  would  not  be  taken  alive.  A  guard  was 
placed  about  the  works  and  all  night  men  armed  with  muskets 
patrolled  before  and  around  the  building. 

When  daylight  came  a  cautious  advance  was  made,  and  finally 
the  building  was  entered.  Not  a  man  was  found  within  it.  All 
had  escaped  some  time  during  the  previous  night,  probably  imme- 
diately after  the  last  shooting,  and  long  before  the  guard  was 
set.  Though  no  men  were  found  in  the  building,  there  was 
found  a  Henry  rifle,  a  double-barrelled  shot-gun,  three  revolvers, 
and  a  smaller  pistol,  together  with  several  powder-flasks  and  a 
quantity  of  ammunition  ;  also,  about  one  hundred  cigars,  and  twa 
demijohns  partly  filled  with  whisky — "fighting  whisky,"  no 
doubt.  An  inquest  was  held  by  the  coroner  of  Storey  County, 
and  the  following  verdict  found : 

We  the  undersigned  jurors,  summoned  by  Coroner  Homles  of  Storey 
County  to  make  due  inquiry  into  the  cause  of  the  deaths  of  William  Kellogg, 
Michael  Riley,  John  Brown,  Michael  Cain,  and  W,  D.  Shifiett,  on  being 
duly  sworn  do  find  that  the  true  names  and  ages  of  deceased  were  as  follows  : 
Michael  Cain,  a  nativejof  Ireland,  aged  35  years;  W.  D.  Shifiett,  a  native  of 
Virginia,  aged  47  years  ;  W.  P.  Kellogg,  a  native  of  New  York,  aged  42  years  ; 
Michael  Riley,  a  native  of  Ireland,  aged  37  years,  and  John  Brown,  a  native 
of  Pennsylvania,  aged  37  years  :  and  we  do  find  that  they  came  to  their  deaths 
at  Waller  Defeat  shaft  of  the  Justice  mine  in  Gold  Hill,  Storey  County, 
Nevada,  on  Saturday  October  3,  1874,  from  gunshot  wounds  inflicted  by  the 
hands  of  parties  to  us  unknown. 

Four  men  were  arrested  on  suspicion  of  being  concerned  in 
26 


460 


FIGHTING  INTERESTS. 


the  shooting,  but  these  were  finally  discharged  by  the  grand 
jury,  and  so  ended  the  last  mining  battle  on  the  Comstock  lode. 
The  men  who  were  in  the  Waller's  Defeat  building,  and 
handled  the  guns,  were  not  regular  miners  such  as  work  in  the 
lower  levels,  but  belonged  to  a  class  that  generally  toil  on  the 
surface  at  about  ten  dollars  per  day,  taking  "  fighting  interests  " 
in  mines  that  are  in  dispute,  or  hiring  out  keep  possession  of 
property  that  has  more  than  one  claimant.  In  former  times 
they  were  a  class  of  laborers  that  were  in  brisk  demand. 


CHAPTER  LXII. 

THE  WEALTH  OF  THE  WORLD. 

SILVER  was  known  to  the  ancients  as  far  back  in  the  dim 
and  distant  ages  of  the  past  as  any  record  extends.     It 
was  undoubtedly  one  of  the  first  metals  mined  by  man- 
kind.    In  writings,  both  sacred  and  profane,  mention  is  made 
of  silver  in  the  earliest  ages  of  the  world. 

Gold  being  a  metal  that  is  found  native,  and  silver  being 
very  frequently  found  in  the  native  state,  these  were  doubtless 
among  the  first  metals  with  which  the  primitive  races  of 
mankind  became  acquainted.  Dative  silver  being  found 
mingled  with  various  ores  of  silver,  it  was  probably  not  long 
after  the  metal  became  known  and  valued  that  men  conceived 
the  idea  of  smelting  these  ores  and  thus  obtaining  a  larger 
supply  of  the  metal  than  was  yielded  in  the  native  form.  In 
the  Bible  frequent  mention  is  made  of  silver,  from  the  very 
beginning.  Silver  was  more  highly  prized  than  gold  by  all 
the  primitive  peoples  of  the  earth.  Even  the  sacred  writers 
speak  of  it  with  gusto.  To  this  day  we  find  that  savages  and 
semi-civilized  nations  prefer  silver  to  gold.  It  is  the  case 
with  the  negro  tribes  of  Africa,  the  Indians  of  the  American 
Continent,  and  with  the  nations  of  China  and  Japan.  The 
human  animal  must  be  educated  up  to  a  just  appreciation  of 
gold,  but  silver  by  its  brilliant  white  lustre  and  flash  in  the 
light  of  the  sun  recommends  itself  to  him  as  soon  as  its  sheen 
strikes  his  eye. 

All  metals  were  no  doubt  first  extracted  from  their  ores  by 
smelting,  yet  it  appears  that  the  process  of  extracting  silver 
from  its  ores,  and  gold  from  its  matrix,  by  means  of  quicksilver 

461 


4G2  MINES  OF  ANCIENT  DA  VS. 

was  not  unknown  to  the  ancients.  Pliny  and  Vitruvius 
speak  of  quicksilver  being  used  for  this  purpose.  In  ancient 
times,  if  Pliny  is  to  be  believed,  the  art  of  mining  was  well 
understood,  as  he  speaks  of  silver-mines  being  worked  to  the 
depth  of  a  mile  and  a  half.  If  this  be  true,  our  modern  mines 
have  little  to  boast  of.  To  have  done  such  mining  the 
ancients  must  have  possessed  hoisting  and  pumping  machi- 
nery, or  their  equivalents,  with  appliances  for  ventilation 
equal  to  if  not  surpassing  any  known  to  the  mining  engineers 
of  the  present  age.  There  is  every  evidence  that  silver-mines 
were  worked  in  many  countries  in  the  Old  World  at  a  very 
early  day,  and  not  a  few  are  still  being  worked,  in  regard  to 
the  date  of  the  discovery  and  opening  of  which  there  is  no 
record.  All  that  is  known  is  that  they  seem  to  have  always 
been  worked. 

Fuller,  in  his  treatise  on  silver-mines,  says: 

"  Wherever  in  any  part  of  the  world  silver-mines  have  been  worked  they 
are  worked  now,  unless  for  some  unexplainable  cause,  such  as  the  lack  of 
machinery,  the  existence  of  war,  the  invasion  of  Indians,  etc.  We  know  of 
no  silver-mining  regions  in  the  world  that  have  given  out.  Mexican  mines, 
worked  by  the  Aztecs  before  the  conquest,  are  still  worked  as  profitably  as 
ever ;  the  old  Spanish  mines  openfcd  long  before  Hannibal's  time,  are  still 
worked  with  enormous  profits  ;  the  South  American  mines  have  constantly 
yielded  their  wealth  for  more  than  three  hundred  years,  and  are  as  produc- 
tive as  ever  ;  mines  in  Hungary,  that  were  worked  by  the  Romans  before  the 
Saviour's  time,  still  yield  abundance  of  ore ;  the  silver-mines  of  Freiburg, 
opened  in  the  eleventh  century  and  worked  continually  ever  since,  yield 
their  steady  increase.  So  in  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Russia,  and  indeed 
wherever  silver-mines  have  been  opened,  we  believe  without  exception,  they 
continue  to  be  worked  at  the  present  day,  and  generally  are  more  productive 
than  at  any  time  in  their  past  history.  For  permanent  and  rich  returns,, 
silver-mining  has  no  parallel  in  any  other  business. 

In  regard  to  the  yield  of  the  silver-mines  in  Spain  in  ancient 
times  little  can  now  be  ascertained.  By  many  persons  the 
Spanish  peninsula  is  regarded  as  the  Tarshish  of  old,  and 
through  such  traditions  as  have  come  down  to  us  it  is  quite 
certain  that  Solomon  drew  much  of  his  wealth  from  the 
Spanish  mines  at  the  time  it  is  said,  "  it  was  nothing  accounted 
of,  for  the  King  made  silver  to  be  as  stones  in  Jerusalem." 

Among  the  fabulous  stories  of  the  ancients  in  regard  to 
the  silver-mines  of  Spain  is  that  of  Diodorous,  who  relates 


THE   YIELD  OF  AMERICAN  MINES.  4(33 

. £ 

that 'the  shepherds  of  the  Pyrenees  set  fire  to  the  forests  in  the 
neighborhood  of  their  camps,  when  by  the  burning  of  the 
fallen  timber  the  minerals  of  the  earth  were  fused  and  the 
molten  silver  ran  upon  the  ground  as  water  in  a  brook. 
Among  the  modern  silver-mines  of  Spain  are  those  of  Sierra 
de  Almagrera,  which  were  discovered  and  opened  in  1839,  and 
which  in  1845  gave  employment  to  eight  thousand  miners. 
The  most  important  silver-mines  in  Spain  at  the  present 
time  are  those  of  Hiendelaencia,  which  were  discovered  about 
thirty  years  ago  and  which  have  been  productive  ever  since 
— their  average  annual  yield  for  twenty  years  was  31,577 
pounds  troy.  The  whole  silver  yield  of  Spain  is  at  present 
about  one  hundred  thousand  pounds  troy  per  annum. 

In  Germany,  the  silver-mines  discovered  in  the  Hartz 
mountains  and  at  Frieberg,  Saxony,  in  the  tenth  century 
are  still  being  worked  as  vigorously  as  ever.  Much  of  the 
silver-ore  worked  fn  Germany  is  of  no  better  quality  than  is 
thrown  away  on  the  Comstock  as  "  waste  rock."  In  Norway 
and  Sweden  silver-mines  known  before  the  discovery  of 
America,  are  being  worked.  The  mines  of  Sala,  Westmania, 
which  are  yet  being  worked  were  known  and  worked  over 
500  years  ago.  The  Cero  de  Pasco  mines,  Peru,  discovered 
in  1630,  from  which  no  less  than  five  million  pounds  of  silver 
were  taken  out  in  forty-three  years,  are  still  productive.  The 
famous  mines  of  Potosi  (Cerro  de  Potosi),  Bolivia,  formerly 
included  in  the  territory  of  Peru,  discovered  in  1544,  are  said 
to  have  yielded  $1,200,000,000.  The  total  annual  yield  of 
Bolivia  at  present  is  about  450,000  pounds. 

The  Zacatecas  mines,  in  Mexico,  were  opened  in  1548,  and 
the  mines  of  Guanajuata  in  1558.  The  principal  mines  of 
Mexico  are  those  of  Guanajuata,  Catorce,  Zacatecas,  and  Real 
del  Monte.  The  yield  of  the  Mexican  mines  since  the  con- 
quest of  the  country  by  the  Spaniards,  up  to  1860,  amounted 
to  $2,039,100,000.  The  following  is  the  yield  of  some  of  the 
older  silver-mines  of  Mexico  and  South  America:  Sierra 
Madre  mines,  $800,000,000.  Veta  Madre,  $235,934,636;  Rio 
Grande,  $650,000,000;  Royas,  $85,421,015;  Valencia,  $31,813, 
486;  Santa  Anna,  $21,347,210;  Biscania,  $16,341,000.  These 
are,  in  most  instances,  not  single  veins,  but  mining  districts 


464  HUMBOLDTS  CURIOUS  CALCULATION. 

in  which  there  are  numerous  veins  of  various  sizes  and 
degrees  of  richness.  They  are  groups  of  parallel  veins.  The 
Veta  Madre,  of  Mexico,  is  however,  situated  much  the  same 
as  the  Comstock  lode  of  Nevada.  It  fills  a  similar  fissure 
and  is  in  a  similar  formation.  Although  other  mines  in 
Mexico  contain  much  richer  ores,  the  Veta  Madre  (Mother 
Vein),  has  been  more  extensively  worked  than  any  other 
mine  in  that  country.  It  has  been  steadily  worked  for  over 
three  hundred  years,  yet  during  the  three  centuries  there  has 
been  taken  from  it  but  little  more  silver  than  has  been  taken 
from  the  Comstock  during  sixteen  years. 

Humboldt  says  the  silver  sent  to  Europe  from  Mexico  and 
South  America,  from  the  discovery  of  the  New  World  by 
Columbus  to  1809,  would  make  a  solid  ball  eighty-three  and 
seven-tenths  Paris  feet  in  diameter;  at  the  present  rate  of 
production  the  Comstock  lode  alone  should  roll  up  a  tolerably 
large  ball,  as  in  sixteen  years  it  is  estimated  the  yield  of  the 
vein  has  been  $220,000,000,  or  an  average  annual  yield  of 
$13,750,000.  This  is  a  good  showing  when  we  consider  that 
our  people  did  not  know  what  the  silver-ore  was  when  they 
found  it,  and  that  during  the  first  two  or  three  years  after  they 
began  working  the  ores  much  time  was  spent  in  trying  experi- 
ments with  all  kinds  of  processes,  and  with  machinery  of  an 
inferior  character. 

In  1874  the  yield  of  the  Comstock  mines  was  $21,940,123,96; 
in  1874,  it  was  $22,242,274,95;  and  for  1875  it  will  be  much 
greater. 

According  to  recent  estimates  the  total  silver  product  of  the 
world  from  1850  to  1875  was  $1,025,000,000  and  the  Comstock 
mines  are  now  yielding  one-tenth  of  the  entire  amount  pro- 
duced in  the  world.  The  latest  estimates  of  German  and 
American  authorities  give  the  total  product  of  all  the  gold 
and  silver-mines  in  the  world,  from  the  year  1500  to  1874,  as 
follows:  Pounds  of  silver — 364,000,000,  valued  at  $8,175,000 
ooo.  Pounds  of  gold — 17,000,000,  valued  at  $6,450,000,000. 
Total  pounds  of  gold  and  silver — 381,600,000;  valued  at  $14, 
625,000,000.  These  figures  are  probably  not  very  exact.  It 
is  a  hard  matter  to  get  the  exact  yield  of  even  such  mines  as 
are  worked  by  regularly  organized  companies,  and  almost 


VARIED  FORTUNES.  465 

impossible  to  get  figures  at  all  where  gold  is  being  mined 
from  placers. 

v  It  would  not  be  of  general  interest  to  trace  the  progress  of 
mining  events  on  the  Comstock  year  by  year  from  the  dis- 
covery of  silver  up  to  the  present  writing/''  It  is  sufficient  to 
say  that  in  1862-3,  up  to  which  time  operations  on  the  lode 
have  been  pretty  fully  described,  there  began  to  be  an  abun- 
dance of  tolerably  efficient  mills,  and  hoisting-works  that 
were  sufficiently  powerful  to  do  the  work  at  the  depth  to 
which  the  shafts  of  the  principal  companies  had  then  been 
sunk.  Even  as  late  as  1866  the  greatest  depth  which  had  been 
attained  in  any  mine  on  the  Comstock  lode  was  923  feet. 
This  was  in  the  Chollor-Potosi  mine.  The  Gould  &  Curry 
were  then  working  at  a  depth  of  900  feet,  Belcher,  850 ;  Bul- 
lion, 800;  Hale  &  Norcross,  783 ;  Savage,  614;  Ophir,  547,  and 
other  leading  companies  at  a  depth  of  from  500  to  600  feet. 
Ever  since  the  setting  up  of  the  first  steam-hoisting  and 
pumping  machinery  on  the  lode,  and  ever  since  the  starting 
of  the  first  mills  for  the  reduction  of  the  ores  extracted, 
improvements  have  been  made  and  still  continue  to  be  made. 
The  mills  and  hoisting-works  at  present  in  operation  would 
astound  the  miner  and  millman  of  1862-3,  though  he  doubtless 
flattered  himself  that  the  mills  and  hoisting-works  of  that  day 
had  attained  a  degree  of  perfection  beyond  which  there  was 
little  room  for  improvement. 

During  these  years  there  were  numerous  changes  in  the 
fortunes  of  the  companies  along  the  lode.  Some  that  had 
rich  ore  upon  the  surface  had  worked  down  to  the  bottom  of 
their  deposit  and  had  found  themselves  in  clay  or  barren 
porphyry,  while  others  who  had  started  in  with  no  ore  on  the 
surface,  as  the  Hale  &  Norcross  and  some  others,  found  them- 
selves in  "bonanza"  at  the  depth  of  six  or  seven  hundred 
feet ;  and  when  ore  began  to  grow  thin  with  these  last  the  first 
companies,  by  drafting  east  from  the  point  where  their  pay 
pinched  out  in  clay  and  porphyry,  had  again  found  ore  and  in 
larger  and  richer  bodies  than  at  first.  Thus  the  bonanza  and 
luck  shift,  and  will  probably  so  continue  to  shift  as  long  as 
the  mines  are  worked.  It  never  but  once  happened — which 
was  in  1865 — that  so  many  mines  were  at  once  in  barren  as  to 


466  THE  PLUMS  IN  THE  PUDDING, 

depress  business  and  cause  a  feeling  of  distress  in  regard  to 
the  permanence  of  the  mines. 

No  sooner  had  some  of  the  more  timid  taken  their  depart- 
ure, however,  and  raised  the  cry  that  the  country  was  "  played 
out,"  than  longer  and  richer  bodies  of  ore  began  to  be  found 
than  ever  before.  Those  who  had  run  away  then  came  back, 
bitterly  regretting  the  want  of  faith  which  had  caused  them  to 
leave  just  at  a  time  when  a  fortune  might  have  been  had  for 
a  mere  song.  In  1862,  the  Reese  River  mines,  150  or  200 
miles  east  of  Virginia  City,  were  discovered,  a  rush  to  these 
occurred,  and  the  town  of  Austin  was  built  up ;  then  came  the 
White  Pine  excitement,  and  the  towns  of  Hamilton  and 
Treasure  City  were  built;  afterwards  Eureka  and  Pioche 
were  built  by  the  discovery  of  rich  mines  in  their  neighbor- 
hood. The  camps  named  still  flourish,  though  they  have 
their  "ups  and  downs" — are  sometimes  in  "bonanza"  and 
sometimes  in  "borrasca." 

It  may  be  well  just  here  to  explain  these  words.  Both  are 
Spanish.  "Bonanza"  signifies  prosperity,  *  success — that  all 
is  well.  At  sea  it  is  used  by  sailors  when  the  weather  is  fair 
and  they  are  sailing  with  a  fair  wind — when  all  is  well  with 
them.  Among  miners  it  means  that  they  are  working  in  a 
body  of  ore,  that  they  are  in  luck,  and  all  with  them  is  pros- 
perous. "Borrasca"  means  just  the  opposite  of  "bonanza." 
At  sea  it  means  tempestuous  and  dangerous  weather,  bad 
fortune — all  going  wrong;  among  miners  it  means  that  they 
are  in  barren  rock,  that  they  are  in  a  bad  streak,  out  of  luck. 
Among  miners,  borrasca  is  suggestive  of  long  faces,  sad 
hearts,  and  empty  pockets,  while  bonanza  shows  us  faces 
wreathed  in  smiles,  hearts  that  are  merry,  and  purses  that  are 
plethoric.  Along  the  Comstock  the  mining  companies  are 
sometimes  in  bonanza  and  sometimes  in  borrasca.  So  long 
as  they  are  in  the  great  fisssure,  however,  and  have  a  good 
width  of  '*  vein-matter  "  they  are  not  utterly  cast  down  even 
though  they  may  be  drifting  in  barren  rock — they  are  liable 
to  run  into  ore  at  any  time  and  often  do  so  when  such 
good  fortune  is  least  expected.  Some  have  compared  the 
vein-matter  of  the  lode  to  a  great  pudding  into  which  has 
been  stirred  raisins,  currants,  and  plums ;  sometimes  you  find 


VALUE  OF  THE  DIFFERENT  LEVELS.  467 

a  currant,  sometimes  a  raisin,  and  sometimes  a  plum,  while 
again  you  are  blessed  with  nothing  better  than  the  matter  of 
which  the  mass  of  the  pudding  is  composed. 

To  multiply  examples  would  be  tedious,  but  an  example  or 
two  will  probably  not  be  out  of  place.  Although  there  is  ore 
in  the  Crown  Point  mine,  Gold  Hill,  at  the  depth  of  900  feet, 
their  first  great  bonanza  was  not  found  until  they  had  at- 
tained a  depth  of  1300  feet.  This  was  a  magnificent  body  of 
ore,  and  yielded  many  millions  of  dollars.  The  very  rich  ore 
was  confined  to  a  space  about  two  hundred  feet  in  length 
lying  just  north  of  the  line  of  the  Belcher  mine,  but  the  vein 
contained  a  considerable  amount  of  low-grade  ore  for  a  dis- 
tance of  about  350  feet  further  north.  Finally,  in  1873,  they 
had  worked  down  through  this  rich  deposit  to  the  i4oo-foot 
level  and  there  started  a  cross-cut  east  in  search  of  ore.  When 
this  cross-cut  had  passed  through  the  west  clay  wall  of  the 
vein  a  deposit  of  very  rich  ore  was  found  some  feet  in  width. 
Passing  through  the  cross-cut  next  encountered,  a  streak  of 
white  and  almost  barren  quartz  about  two  feet  in  width,  and 
beyond  this  reached  ore  worth  from  $45  to  $75  per  ton.  This 
body  of  ore  proved  to  be  twenty-four  feet  in  width.  The 
cross-cut  being  continued  east  across  this  suddenly  struck  a 
solid  wall  of  porphyry.  The  whole  face  of  the  cross-cut  was 
in  this  barren  rock,  and  it  was  at  first  thought  that  the  east 
wall  of  the  ledge  had  been  reached,  but  after  passing  through 
a  few  feet  of  porphyry  a  very  large  body  of  ore  assaying  from 
$250  to  $600  per  ton  was  reached.  As  the  mine  continued 
to  be  worked  this  search  for  ore  was  repeated  at  intervals,  and 
thus  far  the  search  has  never  been  in  vain.  In  1875  ore  was 
being  extracted  everywhere  from  the  900  down  to  the  1500- 
feet  level,  though  much  of  that  obtained  in  the  upper-levels 
was  of  low-grade,  yet  too  rich  to  be  left  behind. 

In  May,  1873,  in  the  Belcher  mine,  adjoining  the  Crown 
Point  on  the  south,  was  found  the  continuation  of  the  same 
rich  deposit  worked  on  the  i3oo-foot  level  of  the  last  mine 
named.  Afterwards,  other  bodies  were  found  at  a  still  greater 
depth,  and  to  the  eastward,  and  so  the  work  of  sinking  and 
searching  for  new  bonanza  still  goes  on,  while  at  the  same 
time  ore  is  being  extracted  from  those  already  found.  In  the 


468  SEARCHING  IN  THE  DARK. 

Savage,  Gould  &  Curry,  Hale  &  Norcross,  Chollar-Potosi, 
Yellow- Jacket,  Imperial,  Empire,  Overman,  and  a  score  of 
other  mines  this  is  the  work  which  is  constantly  going  on. 

Some  persons  will  no  doubt  think  that  if  there  is  a  deposit 
of  ore  in  a  mine  it  should  be  found  in  a  short  time  and  with 
but  little  trouble,  but  miners  can  see  no  further  into  the 
ground  than  persons  who  have  their  homes  and  business  on 
the  surface.  Place  a  man  in  the  bottom  of^a  shaft  one  thou- 
sand feet  in  depth ;  then  tell  him  to  drift  off  and  find  a  body 
of  ore,  and  he  is  much  the  same  as  a  man  groping  about  in  a 
dark  cellar.  He  knows  which  way  to  go  to  reach  the  vein, 
but  when  once  he  is  in  the  vein  he  may  almost  touch  that  of 
which  he  is  in  search  without  finding  it. 

If  mining  men  knew  the  exact  spot  in  which  the  rich  de- 
posits are  located,  it  would  be  an  easy  matter  to  sink  a  shaft 
or  run  a  drift  to  tap  them.  Thus  it  happened  that  it  was 
fourteen  years  after  the  discovery  of  silver,  and  the  Comstock 
lode  before  what  is  now  known  as  the  "  Big  Bonanza," — the 
chief  of  all  the  bonanzas — was  found.  For  fourteen  years  men 
daily  and  hourly  walked  over  the  ground  under  which  lay 
the  greatest  mass  of  wealth  that  the  world  has  ever  seen  in 
the  shape  of  silver  ore,  yet  nobody  suspected  its  presence. 
The  ground  on  the  surface  presented  the  same  appearance  as 
the  soil  in  other  places  in  the  same  neighborhood,  and  roads 
were  dug  in  it,  houses  were  built  upon  it,  and  all  kinds  of 
things  were  done  on,  in,  and  about  it  without  anybody 
thinking  any  more  of,  or  about  it,  than  of  any  other  ground  in 
the  town. 


CHAPTER  LXIII. 

FLUCTUATIONS   OF    FORTUNE. 

WHAT  are  now  known  as  the  "  bonanza  mines  "  are  in 
great  part  made  up  of  small  mines  that  were  located  to 
the  southward  of  the  Ophir  soon  after  the  discovery  of 
silver.     The  big  bonanza  lies  in  the  Consolidated  Virginia  and 
California  mines,  and  its  northern   extremity  extends  into  the 
Ophir,  as  is  supposed ;  it  is  also  thought  that  it  will  be  found  to 
extend  into  the  Best  and  Belcher,  which  is  the  first  mine  south 
of  the  Consolidated  Virginia. 

The  north  end  of  the  vein  is  divided  into  claims  at  this  point, 
as  is  shown  in  the  accompanying  diagram. 

The  California  mine  contains  600  feet  on  the  length  of  the 
ledge,  and  is  of  whatever  width  the  vein  shall  prove  to  be,  as 
the  owners  have  a  right  to  follow  it,  wherever  it  may  go.  It 
consists  of  the  original  California  of  300  feet  to  which  has  been 
added  by  purchase  the  Central  mine  No.  i,  containing  150  feet; 
the  Central  No.  2,  100  feet,  and  the  Kinney  ground  50  feet. 
There  are  900  shares  to  the  foot,  or  540,000  shares  in  the  whole 
mine. 

The  Consolidated  Virginia  mine  contains  710  feet  of  ground 
along  the  lode,  and  is  made  up  of  the  Dick  Sides  ground,  500 
feet,  and  the  White  &  Murphy  ground,  210  feet.  There  are 
108,000  shares  in  the  mine.  The  Ophir,  which  lies  next  north 
of  the  California  mine,  contains  675  feet  and  is  divided  into 
100,800  shares.  In  1874,  600  feet  were  taken  off  the  north  end 
of  the  Ophir  and  incorporated  as  a  separate  mine,  which  was 
called  the  Mexican.  The  Mexican  contains  108,000  shares. 

469 


470  THE  COM  STOCK  MINES. 


Longitudinal  Section  of  the  North  End  of  the  Com  stock  Lode. 


NORTH. 


Sierra  Nevada. 


Union  Consolidated. 


Mexican. 


Ophir. 


California. 


<£ 
Consolidated  Virginia.  o 


Best  &  Belcher. 


Gould  &  Curry. 


Savage. 

F* 


SOUTH. 


HIDDEN  TREASURE. 


THe  bonanza  mines  are  situated  in  the  northeast  part  of  Vir- 
ginia City,  and  many  buildings  stand  on  the  ground  under 
which  they  lie.  Small  bodies  of  paying  ore  were  found  in  some 
of  the  mines  composing  the  California  mine  in  the  early  days, 
but  they  were  soon  worked  out,  and  for  a  number  of  years  the 
ground  lay  idle.  In  the  Dick  Sides  and  White  &  Murphy,  the 
two  mines  from  which  was  formed  the  Consolidated  Virginia, 
very  little  ore  of  any  kind  was  found  on  the  surface  or  even  at 
the  depth  of  three  ar  four  hundred  feet,  and  these  claims  had 
also  lain  idle  several  years  before  they  were  purchased  by 
Messrs  Mackey  &  Fair  and  their  associates  Messrs  Flood  £ 
O'Brien,  of  San  Francisco.  However,  on  what,  is  now  the  Con- 
solidated Virginia  ground,  a  shaft  had  been  sunk  to  the  depth  of 
six  or  seven  hundred  feet  from  the  bottom  of  which  had  been 
run  a  drift  of  considerable  length. 

Ore  was  first  found  in  the  Consolidated  Virginia,  in  March,  1873 
at  the  time  when  Captain  S.  T.  Curtis  (in  1875  superintendent. 
of  the  Ophir)  was  in  charge.  The  ore  then  found  was  a  body 
about  twelve  feet  in  width,  which  was  encountered  at  the  depth 
of  1,167  feet  below  the  surface  in  adrift  run  from  the  correspond- 
ing level  of  the  Gould  &  Curry  mine.  At  the  same  time  two 
other  bodies  of  ore  —  the  largest  seven  feet  in  width  —  were  found, 
which  yielded  assays  averaging  $60  per  ton.  At  this  time 
their  present  main  shaft  was  down  710  feet,  and  was  being  sunk 
at  the  rate  of  three  feet  per  day. 

In  October,  1873,  tne  main  shaft  had  reached  the  i,i67-foot 
level  and  in  drifting  southeasterly  a  distance  of  250  feet  a  very 
rich  deposit  of  ore  was  reached  —  the  top  of  the  big  bonanza,  in 
in  fact.  The  work  of  breasting  out  and  regularly  extracting 
ore  from  this  body  was  commenced  October  16,  and  by  the  29th 
a  chamber  had  been  opened  in  it  from  six  to  nine  sets  of  timbers 
in  width  (the  sets  are  five  feet  apart  each  way)  and  four  floors  or 
sets  in  height,  with  solid  masses  of  ore  in  sight  on  all  sides.  A 
drift  had  then  been  run  lengthwise  through  the  ore  a  distance 
of  one  hundred  and  forty  feet,  while  the  nine  sets  of  timbers 
showed  it  to  be  fifty-four  feet  in  width.  Although  all  this  wealth 
was  in  sight  in  the  mine,  the  people  of  the  town,  walking  over 
and  around  the  mine  knew  nothing  of  it.  What  was  in  the 
mine  was  only  known  to  those  at  work  there,  and  to  the  officers 


472  A  GREA  T  SENSA  TION. 

of  the  company.  I  had  the  satisfaction  of  being  the  first  "  out- 
sider" to  descend  into  the  mine  and  inspect  the  deposit  in 
regard  to  which — the  mine  being  closed  to  visitors — there  had 
been  a  thousand  surmises,  favorable  and  unfavorable.  I  took 
samples  from  all  parts  of  the  ore-body  and  had  them  assayed. 
The  highest  assay  obtained  was  $632,63  per  ton,  and  the 
lowest,  $93,67, — seven  samples  being  tested.  Thus  it  will  be 
seen  that  even  the  top  of  the  bonanza  was  wonderfully  rich. 

The  company  continued   to   explore  this  body  of  ore  in  all 
directions,    running  drifts  and    cross-cuts  through  it,  sinking 
winzes  upon  it  and  making  upraises.     They  followed  it  down 
to  the   1200,  the    1300,   1400  and  to  the   i5oo-foot  levels,  with 
the  same  rich  ore  everywhere.     Although   people  knew  in  a' 
general  way  that  there  was  an  abundance  of  rich  ore  in  the  mine, 
they  did  not  get  excited  about  it,  nor  did  they  trouble  them- 
selves much  about  it  in  any  way,  further,   perhaps,  than  to  say : 
"  Well,  I  am  glad  to  hear  that  the  Consolidated  folks  have  a  big 
body  of  ore  ;  it  will  be  a  good  thing  for  the  town."     The  mine 
did  not  attract  more  attention  than  many  others,  until  in  October 
1874,  when  the  work  of  opening  out  on  the  i5oo-foot  level  was 
begun.     The  ore  then  found  was  of  such  extraordinary  richness, 
and  the  ore-body  appeared  to  be  of  such  unprecedented  extent 
that  people  began  to  talk  about  it,  and  then  some  few  began 
to  visit  and  examine  it,  all  coming  to  the  surface  greatly  aston- 
ished  at  what  they  had  seen.     The  reports  in  regard  to  the 
great  wealth  in  sight  in  the^iiine,  brought  to  the  people  of  the 
upper  world   by   scores   of  reliable   men    and  capable   mining 
experts,  soon  caused  not  a  little  excitement,  and   everywhere  in 
the  streets  persons  were  to  be  heard  talking  of  the  wonderful 
wealth  that  was  being  developed  in  the  Consolidated  Virginia 
mine.     Day  after  day  the  excitement  grew  as  the  reports  came 
from   the   visitors   to   the  mine  that  the  cross-cuts  had   been 
advanced  fifty  feet,  seventy-five,  then  one  hundred  feet  into  the 
big  bonanza  and  still  no  signs  of  getting  through  it  were  seen. 
The  cross-cuts  still  contained  in  a  solid  mass  of  ore  of  the  rich- 
est description  and  each  day  found  them  advancing  in  the  same, 
even  after  they  had  gone  one  hundred  and  fifty  and  two  hun- 
dred feet. 

At  this  time  no  cross-cuts  had  been  made  into  the  California 


THE  EXCITEMENT  INCREASES.  473 

ground,  but  the  most  northerly  cross-cut  in  the  Consolidated 
Virginia  was  but  a  few  feet  from  the  California  south  line, 
therefore  this  would  serve  very  well  to  test  that  portion  of  both 
mines.  All  who  comprehended  the  situation  being  now  confi- 
dent that  the  great  body  of  ore  which  was  slowly  being  explored 
in  the  Consolidated  Virginia  must  extend  far  northward  into 
the  ground  of  the  California  Company,  the  stock  of  said  com- 
pany was  soon  in  brisk  demand.  As  drifts  extended  southward 
from  the  Ophir  mine  into  the  California  and  they  encountered 
rich  ore  in  two  or  three  places,  it  was  considered  certain  that 
a  mass  of  ore  extended  all  the  way  from  the  Consolidated  Vir- 
ginia to  the  mine  first  named,  a  distance  of  six  hundred  feet. 
Although  the  stock  of  the  California  was  but  $30  or  $40  per 
share  in  the  beginning,  it  finally  reached  $750,  for  the  old  shares 
— afterwards  increased  five  for  one. 

At  this  time,  although  there  were  no  cross-cuts  in  the  Cali- 
fornia section  of  the  bonanza,  there  was  a  main  north  and  south 
drift  extending  from  the  Consolidated  Virginia  mine  to  the 
Ophir,  through  the  west-country  rock,  and,  from  this,  cross-cuts 
had  been  started,  and  at  no  distant  day  reached  the  ore. 

As  the  progress  of  these  cross-cuts  in  the  rich  ore  of  the 
bonanza  was  made  known  from  time  to  time  the  excitement 
gradually  increased  until  it  reached  fever  heat,  both  in  Virginia 
City  and  San  Francisco.  Never  were  the  people  more  fairly 
treated  on  the  occasion  of  any  big  strike  on  the  Comstock  lode 
than  they  were  by  the  Consolidated  Virginia  and  California 
Companies  during  the  time  the  big  bonanza  was  being  opened 
and  explored.  All  who  desired  to  do  so  were  allowed  to 
descend  into  the  mines  and  see  for  themselves  what  was  being 
done.  Often  there  were  such  crowds  of  visitors  as  to  very 
seriously  interfere  with  all  underground  operations.  There 
were  times  when  for  days  together  the  miners  did  not  do  more 
than  two  or  three  hours  work  on  a  shift,  so  frequent  were  the 
interruptions  caused  by  persons  visiting  the  drifts  and  cross- 
cuts that  had  penetrated  the  ore -body.  One  party  had  no 
sooner  been  shown  through  the  two  mines  than  another  arrived. 
All  were  allowed  to  dig  into  and  examine  the  ore,  to  carry  away 
samples  for  assays,  and,  in  short,  to  try  whatever  experiments 
they  chose  in  order  to  satisfy  themselves  in  regard  to  the  value 
of  the  deposit. 


474  PANIC! 


The  men  who  visited  the  lower  levels  and  made  themselves 
most  familiar  with  the  developments  thereon,  were  the  men  who 
purchased  more  freely,  and  those  who  were  experts  in  mining 
matters  were  those  who  were  most  astounded  at  the  great 
richness  and  vast  extent  of  the  body  of  ore  opened  into.  These 
men  bought  on  their  judgement  while  the  mercurial  masses 
bought  at  random,  and  under  the  influence  of  contact  with 
persons  as  much  and  as  blindly  excited  as  they  themselves  were 

It  was  the  coming  in  of  the  multitude,  as,  indeed,  it  always 
is,  that  sent  not  only  the  stock  of  the  bonanza  mines,  but  also 
all  other  stocks  rushing  sky-ward  with  rocket-like  celerity. 
When  the  people  start  in  en  masse  to  buy  stocks  they — to  use  a 
very  elegant  illustration — shut  their  eyes  and  rush  in  like  a  hog 
going  into  battle.  They  exhibit  startling  vigor,  activity,  and  en- 
thusiasm, for  a  short  time,  but  the  moment  they  stop  to  "  get  their 
wind,"  that  moment  they  are  in  a  fit  condition  for  a  panic. 
The  least  thing  now  startles  them,  and  they  take  wing  and  are 
off  like  a  flock  of  pigeons ;  or,  to  carry  out  the  simile,  turn  tail 
with  a  snort,  and  make  for  the  canebrakes.  As  many  of  these 
unusual  dealers  in  stocks  have  bought  at  the  highest  figures, 
and  on  margins  to  a  ruinous  extent  taking  all  manner  of  desperate 
chances,  a  panic  among  them  speedily  demoralizes  the  money- 
markets,  and  persons  who  have  made  their  purchases  with  the 
best  of  judgement  lose,  as  all  stocks  are  driven  as  much  below 
as  they  were  before  forced  above  their  real  value. 

In  the  time  of  a  grand  panic  the  coolest  of  persons  and  men 
of  best  judgment  are  forced  to  sell  their  stocks  in  self-defence, 
or  because  it  is,  as  they  say,  "business  "  to  sell  when  it  is  plainly 
to  be  seen  that  the  tendency  of  prices  is  irresistibly  downward; 
and  in  this  way  the  crash  is  made  still  more  complete  and 
sweeping.  Men  no  more  take  into  consideration  the  real  value 
of  a  stock  at  a  time  when  there  is  a  crash  in  the  market  than 
th^y  do  when  the  market  is  unduly  excited  and  everything  is 
going  up  with  a  "  rush."  The  condition  of  the  mines  is  not 
taken  into  consideration  on  the  occasion  of  a  panic.  Rich 
developments  in  the  mines  undoubtedly  are  the  prime  cause  of 
an  advance,  and  this  advance  is  generally  such  as  is  justified  by 
the  mineral  wealth  brought  to  light  until  the  people  "rise  up  in 
their  might "  and  take  a  hand  in  the  business,  after  which  time 
no  man  can  say  what  will  happen. 


UNDEVELOPED   WEALTH.  475 

As  the  masses  purchase  without  knowing  anything  of  the  mines 
except  what  they  have  heard,  so  they  sell  in  spite  of  all  that  may 
be  told  them.  Having  never  seen  or  examined  the  mines  into 
which  they  have  bought,  when  a  panic  occurs  they  are  more 
ready  to  believe  that  there  are  no  mines  at  all  than  to  believe 
that  they  still  exist  and  remain  the  same  as  when  they  made 
their  purchases.  Thus  at  the  time  of  the  panic,  in  1875,  there 
was  actually  a  vast  deal  more  ore  in  sight  and  'the  mines  were 
looking  better  than  at  the  time  that  the  highest  figures  were 
reached — that  was  daily  being  brought  to  light  the  existence  of 
which  had  formerly  only  been  surmised.  Men,  however,  were 
not  dealing  in  the  big  bonanza  as  it  existed  in  Nevada,  but  as  it 
appeared  on  California  street,  San  Francisco.  They  had  lost 
their  interest  in  the  mines  and  were  thinking  only  of  their  money. 

At  the  time  of  the  panic  men  who  had  seen  and  examined  the 
great  bodies  of  ore  developed  in  the  Consolidated  Virginia  and 
California  mines,  not  only  held  on  to  their  stock  but  continued 
to  purchase  as  long  as  they  had  money — buying  more  and  more 
as  the  stock  receded,  and  in  this  way  some  of  even  the  best- 
informed  "  came  to  grief,"  as,  looking  only  at  the  mines  and  not 
at  California  street,  they  bought  on  margins,  and  the  call  of  the 
brokers  for  "  mud  "  soon  distressed  them  and  forced  them  to 
make  ruinous  sacrifices.  In  sjpeaking  with  Mr.  John  Mackey, 
the  mining  millionaire  and  one  of  the  principal  owners  in  the 
bonanza  mines,  about  this  time  (February,  1875),  he  said  to  me  : 
"  We  have  not  yet  fairly  started  in  upon  the  California.  It  will 
require  steady  work  for  at  least  six  months  to  show  what  that 
mine  really  is." 

In  regard  to  the  Consolidated  Virginia  (then  yielding  at  the 
rate  of  $1,000,000  per  month),  he  said:  "Some  persons  think 
that  the  stock  has  already  sold  for  more  than  it  is  worth.  The 
truth  is  that  it  has  never  yet  sold  for  one-half  of  its  value;  but 
all  this  will  be  seen  in  good  time.  People  will  see  it  after  a 
while." 

Speaking  of  the  crash  in  stocks,  Mr.  Mackey  said  ;  "  It  is  no 
affair  of  mine.  I  am%not  speculating  in  stocks.  My  business 
is  mining — legitimate  mining.  I  see  that  my  men  do  their  work 
properly  in  the  mines,  and  that  all  goes  on  as  it  should  in  the 
mills.  I  make  my  money  here  out  of  the  ore.  Had  I  desired 
27 


476  A  MILLIONAIRE'S  ADVICE. 

to  do  so,  I  could  have  gone  down  to  San  Francisco  with  ten 
thousand  shares  of  stock  in  my  pocket,  and,  by  throwing  it  on 
the  market  at  the  critical  moment,  I  could  have  brought  about 
a  panic  and  a  crash,  just  as  has  been  done.  Suppose  I  had  done 
so,  and  had  made  $500,000  by  the  job — what  is  that  to  me  ? 
By  attending  to  my  legitimate  business  here  at  home  I  take  out 
$500,000  in  one  week." 

Mr.  Mackey,  indeed,  troubles  himself  very  little  with  the  ups 
and  downs  of  the  stock-market  or  with  the  chicanery  and  wire- 
pulling of  the  stock  manipulators.  As  he  says,  he  is  content  to 
see  that  all  goes  well  in  his  mines  and  mills,  and,  as  it  were, 
scoops  his  coin  directly  from  the  lower  levels  into  his  pockets. 
He  wants  to  make  no  money  by  engineering  crashes  in  stocks 
which  ruin  thousands  on  thousands  of  industrious  and  worthy 
persons.  During  a  short  conversation  with  him,  Mr.  Mackey 
repeatedly  said :  "  My  business  is  square,  legitimate  mining, 
I  make  my  money  here  from  the  mines — from  the  ore  itself. 
Both  here  and  in  San  Francisco,"  continued  he,  "  persons  are 
constantly  coming  to  me,  or  writing  to  me,  to  ask — '  What  shall 
I  buy  ? '  I  say  to  all  that  come  to  me — '  Go  and  put  your  money 
in  a  savings  bank/  " 

Indulging  in  a  quiet  laugh,  at  this  point,  Mr.  Mackey  said  : 
"  You  should  see  some  of  them  stare  at  me  when  they  hear  this 
advice.  They  evidently  consider  me  a  strange  kind  of  mining- 
man.  But  in  speaking  so  I  mean  just  what  I  say,  and  my  advice 
is  good.  I  never  advise  people  to  buy  mining-stocks  of  any 
kind." 

In  this  Mr.  Mackey  is  right.  He  can  never  know  what  jobs 
may  be  put  up  by  the  "stock-sharps"  to  break  the  price  of 
almost  any  stock  on  the  list,  merit  or  no  merit.  By  giving  no 
advice  he  escapes  all  reproach,  and  pursues  the  even  tenor  of 
his  way,  digging  his  dollars  out  of  his  mines,  regardless  of  the 
fluctuations  in  stocks  and  the  machinations  of  the  "  manipula- 


CHAPTER  LXIV. 

THE   RICHEST   SPOT   IN   THE   WORLD. 

AS  by  this  time  "the  general  reader  will  have  heard  as 
much  as  he  will  care  to  know  about  excitements  in 
stocks,  crashes,  the  tricks  of  the  manipulators,  and  the 
troubles  of  the  manipulated,  I  shall  now  turn  to  the  Big 
Bonanza  itself. 

A  description  of  a  trip  down  a  deep  shaft  being  given  else- 
where, I  shall  with  the  reader's  permission,  drop  at  once  to 
the  bottom  of  the  shaft  of  the  Consolidated  Virginia  mine, 
landing  among  the  miners  at  a  station  1,500  feet  below  the 
surface  of  the  earth,  on  what  is  known  as  the  "  i5oo-foot  level." 

Although  many  bodies  of  ore  that  have  yielded  millions  of 
dollars  have  been  found  on  the  great  lode,  here  has  at  last 
been  discovered  what  appears  to  be  the  heart  of  the  Comstock. 
At  the  point  where  the  big  bonanza  was  found  the  fissure  in 
which  is  formed  the  Comstock  lode  is  of  unusual  width. 
Measuring,  from  the  country-rock  (syenite)  on  the  west  to 
the  east  country  rock  (propylite),  the  distance  is  from  one 
thousand  to  one  thousand  two  hundred  feet.  This  space 
between  the  two  country-rocks  represents  the  width  of  the 
fissure,  and  is  filled  with  a  "vein-matter"  or  gangue  composed 
of  quartz,  clay,  and  porphyry.  In  this  gangue  has  been 
formed  the  ore.  As  the  vein-matter  or  gangue  appears  to  be 
the  "matter"  of  the  ore,  in  order  to  produce  so  great  a  deposit 
as  is  seen  in  the  Consolidated  Virginia  and  California  mines, 
an  immense  mass  of  it  was  required.  In  a  place  where  the 
fissure  is  narrow  and  the  vein-matter  is  pinched,  no  great 
breadth  of  ore  may  be  looked  for — it  will  be  in  proportion  to 
the  vein-matter. 

479 


480  THE  GRAND  GALLERY. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  Consolidated  Virginia  folks  reached 
the  crest  of  the  subterranean  silver-mountain  in  1873,  at  the 
depth  of  1,167  feet>  but  it  was  not  until  in  the  fall  of  1874  that 
they  began  to  open  out  on  the  i5oo-foot  level,  running  cross- 
cuts into  the  mass  of  ore  that  produced  an  unprecedented 
sensation  among  the  mining  men  of  both  Europe  and  America. 

Leaving  the  station  into  which  we  dropped  with  the  cage 
from  the  hoisting-works,  standing  1500  feet  above,  we  advance 
a  few  steps  eastward  along  a  broad  gallery,  the  sides  and  roof 
of  which  are  composed  of  a  mass  of  heavy  timbers  and  thick 
planks,  when  we  reach  the  main  north-and-south  drift,  which 
is  the  great  highway  of  the  mine.  It  is  a  grand  gallery,  nine 
feet  in  width  by  about  the  same  in  height,  and  over  one  thou- 
sand feet  in  length.  It  extends  through  the  whole  length  of 
the  California  (600  feet)  to  the  Ophir  mine.  From  the  Ophir 
to  the  north  line  of  the  Consolidated  Virginia  it  was  made  of 
double  height  in  order  to  carry  a  great  volume  of  air;  as  the 
air,  fresh  and  pure  from  the  surface,  is  drawn  down  the  Ophir 
shaft  and  passing  through  that  mine  enters  the  great  mai.n 
drift  which  it  follows  through  the  California  and  the  Consoli- 
dated Virginia  to  the  shaft  of  the  mine  last  named,  where  it 
ascends  and  again  mingles  with  the  atmosphere  of  the  upper- 
world.  In  passing  from  shaft  to  shaft,  however,  this  air  has 
been  turned  from  its  direct  course  in  various  places  (by  means 
of  doors  closing  drifts  and  cross-cuts)  and  carried  to  where  it 
has  refreshed  and  given  life  to  many  miners  digging  down  the 
ore  in  the  breasts  of  the  several  heated  stopes. 

Crossing  this  thoroughfare  of  the  i5oo-foot  level  and  ad- 
vancing a  few  steps  further  to  the  eastward,  we  reach  the  vast 
deposit  of  ore  known  as  the  "  Big  Bonanza."  Cross-cuts  pass 
through  the  ore,  east  and  west,  and  cross-drifts  from  north  to 
south,  cutting  it  into  blocks  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  feet 
square,  as  the  streets  run  through  and  divide  a  town  into 
blocks.  It  is  indeed  a  sort  of  subterranean  town,  and  is  more 
populous  than  many  towns  on  the  surface,  as  it  numbers  from 
800  to  1,000  souls,  and  nearly  all  are  voters. 

Passing  to  the  south  end  of  the  bonanza,  to  the  place  where 
it  was  first  crossed  by  a  drift,  we  find  it  to  be  one  hundred 
and  forty-eight  feet  in  width — all  a  solid  mass  of  ore  of  the 


GLITTERING  CA  FERNS.  481 

richest  description.  Here  a  large  stope  is  opened,  and  we  see 
the  miners  at  work  in  the  vein,  blasting  and  digging  down 
the  ore.  They  are  working  upward  from  the  floor  of  the 
level,  and  as  they  progress  they  build  up  square  sets  of 
supporting  timbers  in  the  cavities  or  chambers  cut  out  in 
extracting  the  ore  from  the  bonanza.  Even  here,  well  toward 
its  south  end — as  far  as  explored — the  ore-body  is  by  no 
means  small,  being  over  nine  and  one  half  rods  in  width! 
This  is  not  a  mixture  of  ore  and  worthless  rock,  but  is  a  solid 
mass  of  rich  silver-ore  which  is  sent  to  the  mills  just  as  it  is 
dug  or  blasted  down — ore  that  will  pay  from  $100  to  $300  per 
ton.  As  thirteen  cubic  feet  make  a  ton  of  ore,  we -have  here 
for  every  block  of  ore  three  feet  square  from  $200  to  $600  in 
pure  silver  and  gold. 

We  may  take  our  stand  here,  where  the  miners  are  digging 
out  the  ore,  and  for  a  distance  of  seventy-five  feet  on  each 
side  of  us  all  is  ore,  while  we  may  gaze  upward  to  nearly  that 
height  to  where  the  twinkling  light  of  candles  shows  us 
miners  delving  up  into  the  same  great  mass  of  wealth.  On 
all  sides  of  the  pyramidal  scaffold  of  timbers  to  its  very  apex, 
where  the  candles  twinkle  like  stars  in  the  heavens,  we  see 
the  miners  cutting  their  way  into  the  precious  ore — battering 
it  with  sledge-hammers  and  cutting  it  to  pieces  with  their 
picks  as  though  it  were  but  common  sandstone.  Silver-ore 
is  not — as  many  may  suppose — a  bright  and  glittering  mass. 
In  color  the  ore  runs  from  a  blueish-grey  to  a  deep  black. 
The  sulphuret  ore  (silver  glance)  is  quite  black  and  has  but  a 
slight  metallic  lustre,  while  what  is  called  chloride  ore  is  a 
kind  of  steel-grey,  with,  in  places,  a  pale  green  tinge — the 
green  showing  the  presence  of  chloride  of  silver.  Through- 
out the  mass  of  the  ore  in  very  many  places,  however,  the 
walls  of  the  silver-caverns  glitter  as  though  studded  with 
diamonds.  But  it  is  not  silver  that  glitters.  It  is  the  iron 
and  copper  pyrites  that  are  everywhere  mingled^  with  the  ore, 
and  which,  in  many  places,  are  found  in  the  form  of  regular 
and  beautiful  crystals  that  send  out  from  their  facets  flashes 
of  light  that  almost  rival  the  fire  and  splendor  of  precious 
stones.  There  are  also  often  found  in  the  mass  of  the  ore 
great  nests  of  transparent  and  beautiful  quartz  crystals  that 


482         THE   WORLD1  S  GREATEST  TREASURE-STORE. 

are  almost  as  brilliant  as  diamonds.  Many  of  these  crystals 
are  three  or  four  inches  in  length.  Some  of  the  nests  of 
crystals  are  of  a  light  blue  color,  and  then  they  may  be  classed 
among  the  precious  stones,  as  they  are  amethysts.  Some  of 
these  are  almost  as  handsome  as  the  precious  amethyst.  The 
miners  always  like  to  find  these  nests  of  crystals,  as  they 
indicate  life  and  strength  in  the  vein. 

On  the  i5oo-foot  level  the  bonanza  extends  into  the  Con- 
solidated Virginia  ground  over  three  hundred  feet.  How 
much  further  it  may  extend  in  that  direction  on  the  levels 
below  remains  to  be  ascertained.  The  "chimneys  "  of  ore,  or 
bonanzas,  everywhere  on  the  Comstock  have  had  a  southward 
inclination,  in  addition t  to  dipping  eastward  with  the  vein. 
The  dip  of  the  vein  is  to  the  east,  at  an  angle  of  from  30  to  45 
degrees,  while  the  inclination  of  the  chimneys  of  ore  to  the 
southward  is  at  an  angle  of  from  60  to  75  degrees.  This 
southern  dip  or  inclination  will,  as  many  suppose,  carry  the 
southern  part  of  the  bonanza  into  the  Best  &  Belcher  ground 
at  a  certain  depth.  To  reach  the  Best  &  Belcher  the  ore  must 
pass  entirely  through  the  lower-levels  of  the  Consolidated 
Virginia  mine.  At  the  depth  of  1700  feet  a  drift  has  been  run 
southward  into  the  Best  &  Belcher  ground  from  the  Gould 
&  Curry,  and  the  work  of  cross-cutting  commenced.  Even  at 
this  depth  it  is  not  unlikely  that  they  will  tap  the  bonanza. 

Two  hundred  feet  north  of  the  bonanza  we  have  been 
examining  (the  stope  at  cross-cut  No.  3),  another  stope  has 
been  raised  (on  cross-cut  No.  i)  toward  the  i4oo-foot  level,  and 
here  large  quantities  of  rich  ore  are  being  extracted.  Cross- 
cut No.  2,  about  half  way  between  the  two  stopes  mentioned, 
shows  the  bonanza  to  be  three  hundred  feet  in  width,  all  of 
this  great  distance  being  a  mass  of  rich  ore,  and  ore  that  can 
be  sent  to  the  mills  without  assorting.  Think  of  a  mass  of 
silver-ore  over  eighteen  rods  in  width !  In  many  places  a 
vein  of  ore  three  feet  in  thickness  is  considered  large,  and  in 
California  veins  of  gold-bearing  quartz  that  are  only  from  one 
to  six  inches  in  thickness  are  profitably  worked.  Compared 
with  such  deposits  the  bonanza  is  not  a  vein  at  all  but  a  field, 
a  district  of  ore  ! 

No  such  breadth  of  silver-ore  has  ever  before  been  found 


VENTILATION. 


in  any  mine  in  the  world.  The  silver-bearing  veins  of  Europe 
are  but  a  few  feet  in  width,  and  to  speak  to  a  German  miner 
of  a  mine  in  which  the  breadth  of  ore  was  measured  by  rods 
would  cause  him  to  suppose  that  he  was  talking  with  a  crazy 
man.  Even  in  the  richest  mines  of  Mexico  and  South  Amer- 
ica they  have  never  had  any  such  astounding  width  of  bonanza. 
Then  they  have  always  been  able  to  keep  up  their  ground 
with  single  timbers — posts  and  caps — which  they  could  not 
have  done  with  bodies  of  ore  more  than  a  few  feet  in  width. 
On  the  Comstock  hardly  one  bonanza  has  been  found  that 
could  have  been  worked  by  timbering  with  posts  and  caps. 
In  order  to  work  the  ore-bodies  of  the  Comstock  it  became 
necessary  to  invent  a  new  and  special  system  of  timbering. 

In  this  broadest  part  of  the  bonanza  we  find  at  work  a  great 
number  of  miners,  but  they  are  so  distributed  that  we  see  but 
a  few  in  any  one  spot.  They  work  on  separate  floors,  and 
floor  above  floor  they  are  digging  down  the  ore.  The  pyra- 
mids of  timbers  rise  to  the  height  of  fifty  or  seventy-five  feet, 
and,  as  all  the  heated  air  of  the  level  ascends  to  the  highest 
point,  it  is  very  hot  where  the  upper  gangs  of  men  are  at 
work.  In  addition  to  the  natural  heat  of  the  mine,  coming 
from  the  heated  rock  and  hot  water,  the  flame  of  the  hundreds 
of  candles  and  lamps  does  much  to  heat  the  limited  atmos- 
phere of  the  level ;  besides,  the  air  is  vitiated  by  the  breathing 
of  so  many  men.  Candles  and  lungs  rapidly  consume  the 
oxygen  contained  in  a  given  amount  of  air.  In  order  that 
the  miners  in  the  upper  part  of  the  stope  may  work  in  some- 
thing approaching  to  comfort,  there  are  here  small  blowers 
which  send  up  to  them  through  tin  tubes  a  supply  of  fresh 
air.  Without  fresh  air  from  the  surface  men  can  no  more 
work  in  a  mine  than  they  could  work  under  the  sea  in  a 
diving-bell,  were  no  air  sent  them.  These  blowers  are  all 
driven  by  small  engines  run  by  compressed  air,  there  being 
in  constant  operation  on  the  surface  two  powerful  air-com- 
pressors that  force  air  down  through  mains,  under  a  great 
pressure,  for  the  supplying  of  the  Burleigh  drills  and  the 
engines  in  various  places  on  the  several  levels  of  the  mine. 

Besides  the  air-engines  that  run  the  blowers  in  this  part  of 
the  mine  there  are  other  engines,  driven  by  compressed  air, 


A  "HORSE  "  IN  THE  MINE. 


that  hoist  all  of  the  timbers  to  the  men  working  in  the  upper 
part  of  the  slopes.  Nothing  is  done  by  hand  that  can  be  done 
by  machinery.  As  the  miners  always  work  upwards  in  ex- 
tracting ore,  there  is  little  heavy  handling  of  the  ore  itself 
after  it  is  dug  out  of  the  breasts.  It  is  sent  down  to  the  floor 
of  the  level  in  chutes,  which  land  it  in  bins,  from  which  it  is 
drawn  out  through  gates  into  the  cars  which  convey  it  to  the 
main  shaft,  up  which  it  is  hoisted  to  the  surface. 

In  the  centre  of  this  part  of  the  bonanza  we  have  on  each 
side  of  us  a  width  of  over  nine  rods  of  silver-ore  that  will 
mill  from  $100  to  $250,  and  in  many  parts  of  which  ore  is 
found  that  assays  five  or  six  hundred  dollars.  Not  only  have 
we  this  mass  of  ore  on  all  sides  of  us,  but  it  also  extends  to  a 
great  height  above.  On  the  1,400,  1,300,  1,200,  and  the  1,167- 
foot  levels  men  are  at  work  as  we  see  them  here.  From  the 
level  last  named,  when  the  ore  was  first  found,  in  1873,  they 
have  followed  it  up  to  the  looo-foot  level  and  even  above. 
Fifty  feet  below  the  level  on  which  we  stand,  or  on  the  1550- 
foot  level,  a  long  drift  has  been  run  through  rich  ore  toward 
the  Ophir  mine,  and  from  this  drift  a  number  of  cross-cuts 
have  been  run  into  the  bonanza.  On  this  i55o-foot  level  a 
winze  has  been  sunk  to  the  depth  of  over  two  hundred  feet, 
all  the  way  in  excellent  ore.  This  shows  the  bonanza  to 
extend,  at  least,  to  a  depth  of  over  1,750  feet.  Near  the  stope. 
on  cross-cut  No.  i,  about  the  California  line,  is  seen  some  of 
the  richest  ore  found  in  the  great  bonanza.  At  this  point 
comes  in  what  is  called  a  "horse,"  which  is  a  huge  mass  of 
propylite  (generally  spoken  of  as  porphyry  in  the  mines), 
which  tumbled  into  the  vein  from  the  upper  or  hanging  wall 
at  the  time  of  the  formation  of  the  fissure.  This  "horse" 
crowds  the  ore  into  a  smaller  space,  and  the  ore-body  is  here 
only  about  twelve  rods  in  width,  but  the  greater  part  of  it  is 
immensely  rich  —  such  as  will  yield  from  $300  to  $600  per  ton. 

Here  are  frequently  found  deposits  of  stephanite,  or  silver 
in  the  form  of  crystals.  This  is  almost  pure  silver.  In  the 
places  where  the  stephanite  occurs  there  are  frequently  found 
nests  of  pure,  malleable  silver  in  the  shape  of  flattened  wires 
that  look  as  though  they  had  been  pulled  in  two,  and  in 
springing  back  after  breaking  had  coiled  up  against  the  pieces 


NATIVE  GOLD  AND  SILVER.  485 

of  b*re  on  which  they  are  found.  Some  of  these  wires  have 
the  lustre  of  metallic  silver,  but  the  greater  part  are  blackened 
as  though  by  the  fumes  of  sulphur.  Some  of  the  smaller  and 
finer  wires  on  being  unrolled  and  straightened  out  are  found 
to  be  a  foot  or  more  in  length,  and  often  have  several  branches, 
when  they  somewhat  resemble  sea-moss,  or  some  similar  veg- 
etable production.  The  old  Mexican  mine  was  particularly 
rich  in  specimens  of  this  kind.  In  that  mine  they  were  found 
in  a  kind  of  yellow  clay  in  the  crevices  occurring  in  the  mass 
of  the  ore. 

Free  gold,  in  glittering  spangles,  is  also  very  frequently 
found  in  the  places  where  the  rich  deposits  of  black  sulphuret 
of  silver,  and  native  silver  occur.  A  large  percentage  of  the 
value  of  the  ores  of  all  the  mines  on  the  Comstock  is  in  gold. 
In  many  instances  the  bullion  extracted  is  fifty  per  cent.  gold. 
In  that  part  of  the  bonanza  through  which  passes  the  line 
between  the  California  and  the  Consolidated  Virginia  Com- 
panies, it  is  an  easy  matter  to  find  ore  that  assays  from  $1,000 
to  $5,000  or  $10,000  per  ton,  but  this  is,  of  course,  only  in 
places  where  the  strength  of  the  vein  appears  to  have  con- 
centrated. 

At  the  time  that  the  first  cross-cut  (No.  i)  was  run  through 
this  part  of  the  bonanza,  at  a  point  about  fourteen  feet  south 
of  the  California  line,  a  chamber  about  ten  feet  square  was 
opened  (at  a  point  marked  "winze  down  to  1550"  on  the  map) 
the  walls  of  which  were  a  solid  mass  of  black  sulphuret  ore 
flecked  with  native  silver,  while  the  roof  was  filled  with  Ste- 
phanie, or  silver  in  the  form  of  crystals.  This  was  one  of 
the  richest  spots  found  in  that  part  of  the  bonanza,  and  the 
masses  of  ore  taken  out  were  almost  pure  silver.  Many 
magnificent  specimens  for  cabinets  were  taken  from  this 
chamber  and  parts  of  the  mine  adjoining,  some  of  them  little 
else  but  stephanite  and  wires  of  native  silver.  The  whole 
cross-cut  through  this  part  of  the  mine  showed  an  average 
assay  of  $600  per  ton.  Bottom,  top,  sides  were  all  the  same. 
Look  where  you  might  you  saw  but  a  solid  mass  of  black 
sulphuret  ore  mingled  with  the  pale  green  ore  containing 
chloride  of  silver. 

Two  mining  superintendents  were  one  day  discussing  the 


486 


CHEEK! 


bonanza,  wh,en  one  of  them  said  to  his  brother  silver-hunter: 
"  Supposing  the  Almighty  to  have  given  you  full  power  and 
authority  to  make  such  a  body  of  ore  as  you  pleased,  could 
you  have  made  a  better  than  this? " 

"  I  don't  know  that  I  could,"  said  the  other,  "  but  I  should 
have  made  it  still  bigger." 

"Well,"  said  the  first  speaker,  "you  have  more  cheek  than 
any  man  I  ever  saw ! " 


CHAPTER  LXV. 

AGGREGATED    WEALTH. 

IN  the  California  ground  the  bonanza  extends  through  to  the 
Ophir,  the  next  mine  north,  and  by  the  cross-cuts  run  into 
it  every  one  hundred  feet,  it  is  shown  to  be — as  far  as 
explored — fron  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred  and  fifty 
feet  in  width,  and  everywhere  are  found  the  rich  chloride  and 
sulphuret  ores.  At  the  present  writing  (August  1875,)  no  ore 
has  been  extracted  from  the  California,  except  that  taken  out  in 
running  drifts  and  cross-cuts.  The  ground,  however,  as  far  as 
developed,  has  been  laid  off  in  large  blocks  by  means  of  drifts 
and  cross-cuts,  therefore  is  ready  to  be  mined  whenever  it  is 
necessary  to  extract  ore  for  reduction,  which  will  be  whenever 
the  company's  new  mill  is  completed. 

In  the  California  ground  are  found  the  same  nests  of  steph- 
anite  and  other  extraordinarily  rich  ores  as  are  seen  in  the 
Consolidated  Virginia  mine.  While  these  form  no  large  part  of 
the  bonanza,  they  are  sufficiently  large  and  numerous  to  very 
materially  swell  the  average  value  of  the  deposit. 

The  Consolidated  Virginia  Company  extracts  five  hundred 
tons  of  ore  per  day.  This  is  the  average  daily  yield  from  all 
parts  of  the  mine — from  the  i5oo-foot  level,  and  from  the  levels 
above.  Although  much  of  the  ore  from  the  upper  levels  is  of 
low  grade,  yet  the  whole  averages  $100  per  ton  in  the  mills. 
The  yield  of  the  mine  has  regularly  been  $50,000  per  day,  or 
from  $1,500,000  to  $1,600,000  per  month  ever  since  the  work 
of  reaching  ore  from  the  bonanza  began.  Much  of  the  ore  on 
the  isoo-foot  level  is  too  rich  to  be  economically  worked  alone 
by  pan  process,  therefore  it  is  mixed  with  poorer  ore  from 

487 


488  A  FORTUNE  IN  ONE  FOOT. 

certain  parts  of  the  upper  levels.  Much  more  than  500  tons  of 
ore  per  day  might  be  extracted  were  it  necessary,  but  that  is 
all  that  is  required  to  keep  the  mills  of  the  company  in  operation. 

Opened  as  it  now  is,  there  can  easily  be  extracted  from  the 
California  mine  as  many  tons  of  ore  per  day  as  are  being  taken 
out  of  the  Consolidated  Virginia,  and  ore  that  will  average  even 
higher,  as  the  upper  levels  of  the  California  are  all  intact. 
There  is  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  when  the  California  mill 
shall  be  started  up,  these  two  mines  will  produce  $3,000,000  per 
month,  or  $34,000,000  per  year ;  and  not  for  one  or  two,  but  for 
many  years — ten  years  at  least,  in  which  time  would  be  ex- 
tracted $360,000,000.  A  single  foot  of  ground  taken  out  across 
the  whole  width  of  the  bonanza  in  its  widest  part  would  contain 
a  fortune  for  any  man  of  moderate  desires.  Should  we  go  into 
the  centre  of  the  Consolidated  Virginia  ground  and  take  a  slice 
from  the  bonanza  250  feet  in  width  and  extending  one  level 
below  and  two  levels  above  the  i5oo-foot  level  we  should  then 
•have  a  section  of  ore  300  feet  long,  250  feet  in  width,  and  one 
foot  thick.  This  would  contain  75,000  cubic  feet,  and  containing 
thirteen  cubic  feet  to  the  ton  would  weigh  a  trifle  over  5,769  tons, 
which  at  $100  per  ton  would  amount  to  $576,900  for  a  single 
slice  of  the  bonanza  one  foot  in  width.  By  continuing  to  cut 
off  such  slices  until  we  had  reached  the  California  line — say  230 
feet — we  should  have  in  all  $132,687,000. 

At  a  time  when  the  Consolidated  Virginia  mine  was  much  less 
extensively  developed  than  at  present,  Mr.  I.  E.  James,  a  mining 
engineer  who  has  been  engaged  on  the  Comstock  for  many 
years,  made  an  estimate  of  the  ore  contained  in  the  mine  at  the 
time.  He  took  from  the  working  plans  of  the  mines  the  actual 
length  of  each  drift  and  the  cross-cuts  measured  by  sections,  and 
measured  all  triangles  separately.  The  winzes  were  measured 
no  lower  than  they  had  been  sunk,  and  in  no  place  did  he 
estimate  ore  which  had  not  yet  been  opened.  The  amount  of 
ore  thus  found  was  20,669,500  cubic  feet.  The  usual  calcula- 
tion is  thirteen  cubic  feet  of  ore  to  the  ton,  but  in  order  to  make 
ample  allowances  for  "horses"  and  waste  rock  two  feet  were 
added  and  fifteen  cubic  feet  reckoned  to  a  ton,  giving  1,377,966 
tons,  which  at  $100  per  ton  amounts  to  $137,796,600,  and  at 
$200,  as  many  estimate,  the  average  of  the  ore  in  the  bonanza 


FUTURE  PROSPECTS.  489 

projfer,  would  amount  to  $275,593,200.  Mr.  James  G.  Fair, 
superintendent  of  the  mine,  puts  the  cost  of  milling  and  mining 
at  $17  per  ton,  but  calling  it  $18,  it  cost  to  mine  and  mill  the 
number  of  tons  mentioned  $24,803,388.  Substracting  this  from 
the  gross  amounts  at  $100  and  at  $200  per  ton,  and  dividing  the 
product  by  the  number  of  shares  in  the  mine,  namely  108,000, 
and  it  is  found  that  if  the  ore  averages  $100  per  ton,  each  share 
of  stock  will  receive  in  net  dividends  $1,046  and  at  $200  per  ton 
will  receive  $2,322  in  dividends.  The  stock  is  selling  at  about 
$400  per  share,  and  a  dividend  of  $10  per  share  $1,080,000  in 
all  is  paid  regularly  every  month. 

Whatever  amount  of  wealth  there  may  be  in  the  Consolidated 
Virginia  and  California  mines  it  is  evident  that  their  owners  are 
quite  confident  that  they  will  continue  to  yield  as  at  present  for 
many  years  to  come,  otherwise  they  would  not  expend  money 
as  lavishly  as  they  are  doing  in  preparations  for  their  long 
continued  and  more  extensive  working.  They  are  sinking  a 
new  and  very  large  shaft  1000  feet  east  of  the  present  main 
shaft  of  the  Consolidated  Virginia,  the  machinery  to  be  set  up  at 
which  will  cost  $200,000.  Through  a  drift  run  from  this  shaft 
ore  will  be  extracted  from  both  the  California  and  the  Consoli- 
dated Virginia  mines.  The  two  companies  are  equally  interested 
in  the  shaft.  The  new  mill  being  erected  by  the  California 
Company  will  cost  $400,000.  The  mill  containing  the  stamps 
will  be  near  the  mine,  and  the  crushed  ore  as  it  runs  from  the 
batteries  will  be  conveyed  in  a  flume  to  the  pan-mill,  nearly 
half  a  mile  below  on  Six-mile  Canon. 

Besides  these  heavy  expenditures  the  two  companies  have 
bought  12,000  acres  of  timber-land  high  in  the  Sierras,  to  which 
has  been  constructed  a  flume  through  which  to  float  wood, 
lumber,  and  timber,  and  the  cost  of  this  flume  (twenty-one 
miles  in  length)  was  $250,000.  These  grand  and  expensive 
preparations  show  that  the  companies  in  question  are  but 
getting  ready  to  mine. 

Notwithstanding  that  this  Comstock  bonanza  is  the  largest  and 
richest  deposit  of  silver  in  the  world,  none  of  the  scientific  men 
of  America  have  yet  taken  the  trouble  to  visit  and  examine  it. 
It  has  been  visited  by  many  mining  men  from  Europe,  however. 
The  majority  of  the  European  visitors  are  Englishmen,  though 


490  WHAT  YET  REMAINS. 

many  Germans  and  Frenchman,  and  a  few  Russians,  have  come 
to  see  and  inspect  this  wonder  of  the  modern  mining  world. 
All  these  foreigners  are  not  only  astounded  at  the  great  size 
and  richness  of  the  vein,  but  are  also  forced  to  admit  that  the 
mining  and  milling  machinery  of  Nevada  is  far  superior  to 
anything  of  the  kind  to  be  found  in  Europe. 

The  northern  extremity  of  the  bonanza  penetrates  the  Ophir 
ground  where,  however,  it  as  yet  appears  to  be  somewhat  broken 
and  is  found  to  lie  in  huge  detached  masses,  between  the  1300 
and  the  i6oo-foot  levels.  Much  of  the  ore  found  is  exceedingly 
rich,  carrying  a  large  percentage  of  gold.  Stopes  have  been 
opened  in  several  places  in  the  Ophir,  and  ore  is  being  extracted 
at  the  rate  of  three  hundred  tons  per  day.  Here,  too,  are  being 
made  very  extensive  preparations  for  future  mining  operations. 
Hoisting-machinery  for  the  incline  is  being  erected  that  will  be 
capable  of  sinking  to  the  depth  of  4,000  feet — well  on  toward  a 
mile.  Machinery  for  the  pumping  from  the  same  great  depth  is 
also  being  erected.  Their  present  greatest  depth  is  1700  feet, 
at  which  point  they  are  drifting  for  the  vein.  Their  present 
shaft  is  on  a  line,  north  and  south,  with  the  Consolidated  Vir- 
ginia, and  Gould  &  Curry  shafts,  and  is  about  one  thousand  feet 
east  of  the  old  shaft,  and  the  point  where  silver  was  first 
discovered  in  1859  by  Pat  McLaughlin  and  Peter  O'Riley. 

It  is  a  circumstance  worthy  of  note  that  fourteen  years  after 
the  discovery  of  silver,  the  big  bonanza,  the  mammoth  deposit 
of  the  lode,  should  be  found  near  where  the  first  silver  ore  was 
turned  up  to  the  light  of  day.  About  one  thousand  feet  east- 
ward from  the  spot  where  O'Riley  and  McLaughlin  first  saw  and 
wondered  at  the  strange  "blue  stuff"  in  the  bottom  of  their 
rocker  we  now  have  the  bonanza,  a  second  wonder.  Still  to 
the  eastward  one  of  these  days  a  third  will  be  found.  Out  of 
the  first  bonanza,  into  the  top  of  which  O'Riley  and  McLaughlin 
luckily  struck  their  picks,  was  taken  about  $20,000,000  before 
the  deposit  was  exhausted;  out  of  the  Consolidated  Virginia 
mine  alone  has  already  been  taken  $15,500,000  and  as  yet  they 
have  hardly  begun  working  in  real  earnest,  What  they  have 
worked  out  in  the  bonanza  is  as  one  room  to  a  whole  block  of 
buildings.  In  regard  to  what  is  still  below,  they  only  know 
that  at  the  greatest  depth  yet  attained  they  still  have  the  same 
rich  ore  that  is  found  on  the  i5oo-foot  level. 


UNDISCOVERED  BONANZAS.  491 

By  refering  to  the  map  of  the  i5oo-foot  level  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  Consolidated  Virginia  Company  still  have  a  great 
amount  of  unexplored  ground  lying  to  the  southward  of  where 
they  have  drifted  and  opened  slopes  in  the  great  ore-body. 
What  is  in  the  ground  remains  to  be  seen,  but  undoubtedly 
it  contains  a  vast  amount  of  rich  ore.  As  is  to  be  seen,  the  Cali- 
fornia Company  have  to  the  eastward  a  vast  unexplored  region 
into  which  no  less  than  five  cross-cuts,  one  hundred  feet  apart, 
are  being  extended.  All  of  these  are  in  ore  of  the  richest 
character,  and  the  width  of  the  bonanza  at  that  point  is  likely 
to  prove  as  great  as  at  cross-cut  No.  2,  in  the  Consolidated 
Virginia,  namely  eighteen  or  twenty  rods.  To  cut  off  and 
estimate  "  slices  "  through  the  whole  length  of  the  California 
ground  would  count  up  more  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars 
than  I  dare  name.  When  the  new  mill  of  the  California  Com- 
pany shall  have  gone  into  operation,  silver  will  be  produced  so 
rapidly,  and  in  such  amount  as  to  astonish  the  world,  and  may 
perhaps  reduce  the  market  value  of  the  metal.  When  they 
begin  the  work  of  extracting  ore  they  will  be  able  to  take  out 
all  that  they  can  reduce  in  their  own  mill  and  as  many  other 
mills  as  they  can  secure,  whether  the  amount  required  be  five 
hundred  or  one  thousand  tons  per  day. 

In  the  Mexican  and  Union  Consolidated  mines,  lying  just 
north  of  the  Ophir,  the  work  of  prospecting  has  but  recently  been 
commenced,  yet  very  promising  assays  are  obtained.  The 
Sierra  Nevada  mine,  which  lies  next  to  the  Union  Consolidated, 
on  the  north,  has  yielded  a  large  amount  in  gold  from  surface 
earth,  and  from  decomposed  rock  and  earth  extracted  a  short 
distance  below  the  surface,  but  as  yet  nothing  that  could  be 
called  a  bonanza  has  been  found.  In  the  early  days,  about 
1862,  a  great  deal  of  gold  was  extracted  from  the  surface  earth 
by  washing  with  the  hydraulic  apparatus,  as  the  placer-mines  of 
California  are  worked.  As  at  Gold  Hill,  and  at  the  head  of 
Six-mile  Canon  were  found  great  bonanzas  where  were  at  first 
found  gold-diggings  oh  the  surface ;  so  the  Sierra  Nevada  Com- 
pany may  yet  expect  to  find  a  bonanza  in  some  part  of  the 
large  mountain  on  which  their  mine  is  located.  To  the  east- 
ward of  the  mines  in  which  is  situated  the  big  bonanza  a  score  of 
new  claims  have  been  located,  and  on  many  of  these,  machinery 


492 


FIGURES  BEFORE  FACTS. 


has  been  set  up,  and  large  shafts  are  being  rapidly  sunk.    A  new 
bonanza  is  liable  to  be  found  in  this  direction,  as  it  is  a  part  of 
the  silver  belt  that  has  been  but  little  explored. 

The  excitement  in  regard  to  the  grand  development  in  the 
Consolidated  Virginia  and   California  mines  had  the  effect  of 
sending  up  the  price  of  stocks  along  the  whole  line  of  the  Corn- 
stock.     Mines  that  could  show  no  manner  of  improvements  in 
their  prospects  went  up  with  the  rest,  under  the  pressure  of  the 
excitement.     The   aggregate  value  of  mines   in  Virginia   and 
Gold  Hill  districts,  whose  stocks  are  called  in  the  San  Francisco 
Stock  Board,  was  about  $93,000,000  November  22,  1874.     On 
the  same  day  of  the  following  month  their  market  value  was  as 
follows : 
Andes,  ,,..... 

Arizona  and  Utah,  ...... 

Alpha,  ....... 

American  Flat,  ...... 

Baltimore  Consolidated,        .  .  ,  •  • 

Bacon,  ....... 


Belcher, 

Best  &  Belcher, 

Bullion,          .  , 

Caledonia,  . 

California,  .  • 

Chollar, 

Confidence, 

Consolidated  Virginia, 

Consolidated  Gold  Hill  Quartz, 

Crown  Point,         .  . 

Challenge,  .  . 

Crown  Point  Ravine, 

Dardanelles,  .  . 

Eclipse,  .  .  , 

Empire  Mill,  .  . 

Exchequer,  .  •  , 

Globe,  .  .  • 

Gould  and  Curry,  .  , 

Hale  and  Norcross,  . 

Imperial.  .  •  , 

Julia, 

Justice,  •  .  < 

Kentuck, 

Carried  forward, 


$250,000 
18,000 
159,000 
240,000 
450,000 
240,000 
5,720,000 
3,528,000 
1,700,000 
520,000 
54,000,000 
2,464,000 
1,123,200 
54,ooe,ooo 
140,000 
5,200,000 
600,000 
100,000 
670,000 
250,000 
800,000 
900,000 
25,000 
2,880,000 
1,024,000 
1,900,000 

210,000 

1,470,000 

660.000 

$141,241,200 


FACTS  AFTER  FIGURES.  493 

"' Brought  forward,  $141,241,200 

Knickerbocker,                 ......  120,000 

Kossuth,         .......  216,000 

Lady  Washington,           ......  75,ooo 

Leo,                 .......  40,000 

Mexican,               .......  3,456,000 

New  York  Consolidated,       .....  144,000 

Ophir,                   .......  18,900,000 

Overman,         .            .            •            .            .            .            •  2,944,000 

Rock  Island,         .......  125,000 

Savage,            .......  2,000,000 

Segregated  Belcher,                      .....  960,000 

Silver  Hill,                  ......  540,000 

Sierra  Nevada,                  ......  340,000 

Succor,              .......  114,000 

Trench,                   .             .             .             .             .                          .  50,000 

Union  Consolidated,                .....  1,400,000 

Utah,                      .......  160,000 

Whitman,                     ......  150,000 

Woodville,                           ......  252,000 

Yellow- Jacket,              ......  1,920,000 


Total.         ........    $175,147,200 

By  the  above  it  will  be  seen  that  the  appreciation  in  the  value 
of  forty-nine  mines  was  over  $82,000,000  in  thirty  days. 
Besides  the  mines  given  in  the  above  list  there  were  a  score 
more  that  have  a  market  value,  all  of  which  were  more  or  less 
affected  by  the  excitement,  and  were  bought  by  persons  who  not 
having  money  to  purchase  bonanza  stocks  were  yet  determined, 
to  get  into  mines  of  some  kind. 

The  body  of  ore  in  the  California  and  Consolidated  Virginia 
mines,  known  as  the  "  Big  Bonanza  "  is  by  no  means  the  only 
bonanza  found  on  the  Comstock  that  was  worth  having.  From 
the  first  Ophir  bonanza  was  extracted,  all  told,  about  $20.000,000 ; 
from  the  Savage,  $15,750,000;  Hale  &  Norcross,  $8,000,000; 
Chollar-Potosi,  $16,000,000;  Gould  &  Curry,  $15,550,000; 
Yellow-Jacket,  $15,000,000;  Crown  Point,  $20,000,000;  Belcher, 
$25,000,000;  Overman,  $3,000,000;  Imperial,  $2,500,000,  and 
many  other  mines  sums  running  into  millions,  or  well  up  in  the 
hundreds  of  thousands.  The  Belcher  and  Crown  Point  mines 
are  still  yielding  about  500  tons  of  ore  each  per  day.  The 
Belcher  mine  has  paid  its  stockholders  dividends  to  the  amount 
28 


494:  DISTRIBUTION  OF  THE   WEALTH. 

of  $14,135,000;  the  stockholders  of  the  Crown  Point  have 
received  $i  1,588,000 ;  the  Consolidated  Virginia  has  paid  $9,720, 
ooo ;  Chollar-Potosi,  $3,080,000;  Gould  &  Curry,  $3,826,800; 
Hale&  Norcross,  $1,598,000;  Savage,  $4,440,000  ;  Yellow-Jacket, 
$2,184,000  ;  and  many  others  sums  ranging  from  fifty  thousand 
to  one  million  dollars. 

There  is,  of  course,  a  vast  deal  of  money  paid  out  in  the  shape 
of  assessments  levied  for  the  purpose  of  opening  new  mines,  and 
sometimes  on  mines  already  opened,  when  they  get  into  a  "bad 
streak  " — are  in  "  borrasca  " — but,  taking  all  kinds  of  mines 
together,  the  dividends  have  far  exceeded  the  assessments. 
From  first  to  last,  on  all  the  mines  the  stock  of  which  is  bought 
and  sold  in  the  San  Francisco  Stock  Board,  there  have  been 
levied  assessments  amounting  to  $54,258,500 ;  showing  a  balance 
of  $28,256,708  in  favor  of  the  mines;  there  is  also  the  present 
market  value  of  the  mines  to  be  taken  into  consideration,  which 
is  a  grand  item. 

The  mines  of  the  Comstock  give  life  to  the  whole  Pacific 
Coast,  and  are  the  main-spring,  so  to  speak,  of  all  kinds  of  trades 
and  every  kind  of  business.  They  furnish  to  the  California  me- 
chanic that  employment  which  gives  him  his  bread,  The  army 
of  workmen  of  all  kinds,  who  were  employed  in  the  building  of 
the  famous  Palace  Hotel,  of  San  Francisco,  the  largest  and 
most  costly  structure  of  the  kind  in  the  world,  were  all  paid 
with  money  taken  out  of  th'e  mines  of  the  Comstock.  Washoe 
money  also  reared  the  Nevada  Block,  and  scores  more  of  the 
finest  and  most  costly  buildings  in  San  Francisco — buildings 
which  are  the  pride  of  the  city. 

All  the  foundries  and  machine-shops  of  San  Francisco  and 
other  large  towns  on  the  Pacific  Coast  are  running  day  and 
night  to  fill  orders  from  Nevada  for  engines,  boilers,  pumps,  and 
all  manner  of  mining  machinery ;  but  for  the  Washoe  silver-mines 
nearly  all  the  workmen  employed  in  these  foundries  and  ma- 
chine-shops would  be  obliged  to  migrate  to  some  other  land. 
The  ranchmen  and  fruit-growers  of  California  would  find  times 
very  dull  with  them  but  for  Nevada,  as  in  the  towns  of  the  silver- 
mines,  they  always  find  a  market  for  all  their  products  at  high 
prices  in  ready  coin.  Without  the  "big  bonanza,"  and  the 
many  other  silver-mines  of  all  classes  in  Nevada,  times  would 


ITS  INFLUENCE. 


495 


be  very  different  from  what  they  now  are  in  San  Francisco,  and, 
indeed,  throughout  California  and  over  the  whole  Pacific  Coast. 
The  influence  of  the  Washoe  silver-mines  does  not  stop  on 
the  Pacific  Coast,  but  extends  throughout  the  United  States  and 
is  also  felt  in  Europe.  Not  only  are  manufacturing  establish- 
ments in  California  running  to  fill  orders  for  machinery  for  the 
mines  of  Nevada,  but  many  establishments  in  the  Atlantic  States 
and  a  few  in  European  countries  are  also  at  work  on  certain 
kinds  of  machinery  required  in  the  silver-mines;  as  steel-wire 
cables,  air-compressure  power-drills,  and  the  like.  Not  alone  to 
the  deposit  of  ore  in  one  or  two  mines,  but  to  the  whole  Corn- 
Stock  lode  should  be  given  the  name  of  the  "  Big  Bonanza." 


CHAPTER  LXVI. 

CONCERNING   VENTILATION. 

t    LTHOUGH  something  has  already  been  said  of  the 
ventilation  of  mines  and  of  subterranean  water,  I  shall 
now  devote  a  chapter  or  two  to  these  matters,  else  they 
may  not  be  thoroughly  understood. 

The  proper  ventilation  of  a  mine  is  a  matter  of  the  first 
importance.  Without  ventilation  no  mine  can  be  worked. 
Without  ventilation  the  whole  mine,  even  to  the  mouth  of  the 
shaft,  would  be  filled  with  stagnant  and  foul  air,  in  which  men 
could  not  live  for  half  a  minute.  No  mine  can  be  worked 
unless  air  from  the  surface  of  the  earth  is  introduced  into  it. 
It  is  even  impossible  to  sink  a  straight  shaft  to  the  depth  of 
one.  hundred  and  fifty  or  two  hundred  feet — all  the  circum- 
stances being  the  most  favorable  possible — without  carrying 
fresh  air  down  to  the  men  working  in  its  bottom.  When 
mining  was  first  begun  on  the  Comstock,  wind-sails  were  used 
to  carry  air  down  into  the  shafts.  This  is  a  contrivance  of 
cotton-cloth,  and  is  a  cross  between  a  sail  and  a  bag.  The 
mouth  of  the  baggy  sail  is  turned  to  the  wind,  and  when  it 
fills,  air  is  forced  down  a  tube  that  leads  from  its  lower  end. 
Sometimes  air  was  forced  into  a  shaft  by  means  of  a  common 
blacksmith's  bellows — slow  and  hard  work.  When  water  and 
a  proper  amount  of  fall  can  be  obtained,  a  water-blast  is 
sometimes  used.  In  this  the  water  falling  through  a  tube 
carries  down  with  it  and  forces  into  the  shaft  or  mine  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  air. 

At  the  present  time,  however,  the  only  manner  in  which  air 
is  forced  into  mines  is  by  means  of  rotary  blowers  or  fans— 

496 


TOO  HOT  FOR  COMFORT.  497 

precisely  the  same  as  those  used  at  the  foundries  for  furnish- 
ing a  blast  to  the  cupolas  in  which  iron  is  melted.  At  all  of 
the  mines  along  the  Comstock  these  blowers  are  seen  in 
operation.  The  best,  cheapest,  and  most  thorough  means  of 
ventilation  is  by  making  connection  with  the  shaft  of  an 
adjoining  mine.  The  moment  such  connection  is  made,  the 
air  from  the  surface  goes  down  one  shaft  and  comes  up  the 
other.  In  passing  to  the  shaft  through  which  it  again  rises 
to  the  surface,  the  air,  of  course,  takes  the  most  direct  route, 
yet  a  great  volume  of  pure  air  is  introduced  into  the  two 
mines.  By  means  of  doors  fitted  to  the  connecting  drifts 
between  the  two  mines,  the  air  thus  introduced  may  be  dis- 
tributed pretty  evenly  through  the  principal  levels,  as  it  can 
be  made  to  circulate  at  a  considerable  distance  from  what 
would  be  its  direct  and  natural  route. 

In  all  mines,  however,  there  are  always  drifts,  cross-cuts, 
winzes,  and  upraises  in  remote  places  to  which  it  is  impossible 
to  convey  the  air  circulating  in  the  body  of  the  mine.  To 
provide  a  supply  of  air  at  these  points  the  blowers  are  used. 
They  send  a  column  of  air  down  into  the  mine  through  a 
large  iron  pipe,  and  on  the  several  levels  are  smaller  pipes 
.which  convey  it  to  where  it  is  required.  In  many  of  the 
mines  there  are  small  blowers  on  the  lower-levels  that  are 
run  by  engines  driven  by  compressed  air.  These  are  very 
useful  in  furnishing  a  supply  of  air  in  out-of-the-way  places. 

It  is  not  only  necessary  to  furnish  pure  air  for  the  miners 
to  breathe,  but  fresh  air  is  required  in  great  volume  to  cool 
off  the  rock  and  keep  down  the  heat  in  the  drifts  and  cross- 
cuts of  the  lower-levels.  As  the  shafts  and  inclines  increase 
in  depth  there  is  a  constant  and  corresponding  increase  of 
heat  in  the  rocks  into  which  the  works  are  advanced.  At  the 
depth  of  from  1,500  to  2,000  feet  the  rock  is  so  hot  that  it  is 
painful  to  the  naked  hand.  In  many  places,  from  crevices  in 
the  rock,  or  from  holes  drilled  into  it,  streams  of  boiling 
water  gush  out.  In  these  places  the  thermometer  often  shows 
a  temperature  of  from  one  hundred  and  twenty  to  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty  degrees.  It  is  as  hot  as  in  the  hottest  Turkish 
bath.  In  these  places  men  could  not  live  but  for  the  supply 
of  cool  air  that  is  pumped  into  the  drift  or  other  place  in 


498  JB  LOWERS. 


which  they  are  at  work;  even  then  the  temperature  often 
remains  as  high  as  one  hundred  and  ten  degrees.  The  rock 
in  a  newly  opened  level  retains  its  heat  for  months,  however 
much  air  may  be  brought  into  the  mine.  Nearly  all  the 
leading  mines  on  the  Comstock  are  down  to  where  the  rock 
is  exceedingly  hot.  The  Crown  Point  and  Belcher  Compa- 
nies are  down  1,700  feet;  Yellow- Jacket,  1,740;  Bullion,  1,700  ; 
Imperial-Empire,  2,100;  Gould  &  Curry,  Best  &  Belcher, 
Consolidated  Virginia,  and  Ophir,  each  1,700 ;  while  the  Savage 
Company  are  down  nearly  2,300,  and  the  Hale  &  Norcross, 
about  2,200.  In  the  two  mines  last  named  they  find  it  fear- 
fully Hot.  As  the  Savage  Company  have  started  up  machinery 
capable  of  sinking  to  the  depth  of  4,000  feet,  they  will  pres- 
ently be  in  danger  of  dropping  into  the  great  central  fires  of 
the  earth. 

As  depth  is  attained  it  is  found  necessary  to  increase  the 
size  and  capacity  of  the  blowers  used  and  the  main  pipes 
through  which  the  air  is  forced  into  the  mines  have  now  been 
increased  to  about  two  feet  in  diameter,  whereas  the  diameter 
of  those  first  used  was  only  about  six  inches.  With  a  small 
pipe  the  air  backs  up  on  the  blower  and  there  is  a  waste  of 
power.  The  pipe  should  be  so  large  that  there  is  no  longer 
any  perceptible  back-pressure — so  large  that  all  the  air  blown 
into  it  finds  an  abundance  of  room  in  which  to  advance  without 
encountering  the  resistance  of  its  own  elasticity.  The  pipes 
should  be  enlarged  until  the  air  goes  through  without  any 
rebounding. 

It  is  a  question  in  many  minds  whether  the  miners  of  Nevada 
have  gone  the  right  way  about  the  ventilation  of  their  mines; 
whether  instead  of  forcing  air  into  the  lower-levels  they 
should  not  pump  the  foul  and  heated  air  out,  when  pure  air 
would  rush  down  and  fill  the  vacuum  thus  created.  In  the 
mines  of  Germany  they  practice  this  plan  of  pumping  out  the 
foul  air.  In  Nevada,  however,  it  is  not  likely  that  it  would 
answer  so  good  a  purpose  as  the  plan  of  pumping  in  fresh  air. 
By  blowing  in  air  as  is  now  practiced  there  is  always  more  or 
less  good  air  at  the  face  of  a  drift  about  the  end  of  the  pipe, 
but  by  the  pumping-out  plan  the  air  surrounding  the  end  of 
the  pipe  would  be  sucked  into  it,  and  that  which  would  reach 


DOWN  DEEP.  .       499 


the  men  would  be  such  as  flowed  a  long  distance  in  contact 
with  the  heated  rock  forming  the  walls  of  the  cross-cut  or 
drift.  American  miners  work  so  fast  that  the  rock  does  not 
have  much  time  in  which  to  cool  behind  them.  Therefore 
the  better  plan  for  them  seems  to  be  the  reverse  of  that  prac- 
ticed in  the  Old  World. 

It  remains  to  be  seen  what  effect  the  Sutro  Tunnel  will 
have  in  creating  a  circulation  of  air  in  the  lower-levels  of  the 
mines  when  it  shall  have  been  completed.  This  tunnel,  about 
which  so  much  has  been  said  in  Congress  and  elsewhere, 
starts  at  the  edge  of  the  valley  of  the  Carson  River,  in  a 
southeasterly  direction  from  Virgina  City,  and  is  intended  to 
tap  the  Comstock  lode  at  the  depth  of  200  feet.  Its  total 
length  will  be  20,145  feet.  Work  was  commenced  on  it  in 
October,  1859,  and  it  has  now  been  extended  a  distance  of 
between  nine  and  ten  thousand  feet..  About  1,100  feet  of  the 
tunnel,  from  the  mouth  in,  has  been  made  of  full  size,  twelve 
by  sixteen  feet ;  the  remainder,  what  is  called  the  header,  is 
six  by  seven  feet  in  size. 

There  are  along  the  line  of  the  tunnel,  which  runs  under 
several  mountains  of  considerable  size,  four  shafts.  These 
were  designed  to  be  sunk  down  to  the  level  of  the  tunnel, 
when  work  on  the  tunnel  might  be  prosecuted  in  two  direc- 
tions from  the  bottom.  Shaft  No.  i  is  located  at  a  distance 
of  4,915  feet  from  the  mouth  of  the  tunnel;  shaft  No.  2,  9,065 
feet  from  the  mouth  of  the  tunnel;  No.  3,  13,545  feet  from  the 
mouth  of  the  tunnel;  and  shaft  No.  4,  17,695  feet  from  the 
same  point,  and  2,450  feet  from  the  point  where  the  tunnel 
will  intersect  the  Comstock  lode.  Shafts  Nos.  i  and  2  are 
down  to  the  level  of  the  tunnel  and  work  has  been  done 
through  them.  Shaft  No.  i  is  523  feet,  and  shaft  No.  2,  1,041 
feet  in  depth.  Shafts  Nos.  3  and  4  are  not  yet  down  to  the 
level  of  the  tunnel,  the  "header"  of  which  is  progressing 
between  shafts  Nos.  2  and  3.  When  the  tunnel  shall  have 
been  completed,  there  will  be  a  connection  between  the  Com- 
stock lode  and  shaft  No.  4  through  which  there  will  be  a 
circulation  of  air.  This  shaft  (No.  4)  will  be  1,485  feet  in  depth, 
and  when  the  connection  is  made  the  air  will  either  pass  down 
it,  along  the  tunnel  a  distance  of  2,450  feet  and  out  through 


500  THE  SUTRO  TUNNEL. 

the  mines  at  the  point  of  intersection,  or  will  pass  down 
through  the  mines  and  out  through  the  shaft.  Which  way 
the  draught  will  be,  no  man  can  say,  as  the  course  of  currents 
of  air  underground  is  governed  by  laws  not  yet  well  under- 
stood. Whichever  way  the  draught  may  be,  however,  there 
will  be  a  great  improvement  in  the  circulation  of  the  air  in 
the  lower-levels  of  the  adjacent  mines,  to  the  depth  of  2,000  feet. 

However  diligently  work  may  be  prosecuted  on  the  Sutro 
Tunnel,  it  must  be  some  years  yet  before  it  can  be  completed 
to  the  point  of  intersection  with  the  Comstock  lode.  Mean- 
time there  is  being  sunk  at  the  distance  of  about  2,000  feet 
east  of  the  lode,  and  about  450  or  500  feet  west  of  shaft  No.  4 
of  the  Sutro  Tunnel,  a  shaft  which  will  be  the  largest  and 
most  perfect  in  every  respect  ever  sunk  in  that  country.  This 
shaft  is  being  sunk  by  a  combination  of  three  leading  mining 
companies — the  Chollar-Potosi,  Savage,  and  Hale  &  Norcross. 
It  will  be  ten  by  thirty  feet  in  size,  divided  into  four  compart- 
ments by  stout  plank  partitions,  and  the  machinery  placed 
over  it  will  be  of  a  capacity  to  sink  it  to  the  depth  of  one  mile. 

Rapid  progress  is  being  made  in  the  sinking  of  this  great 
shaft.  At  proper  intervals  drifts  will  be  run  from  it  to  the 
Comstock  lode.  The  first  drift  will  probably  be  run  at  the 
depth  of  2,000  feet,  and  it  will  reach  the  lode  long  before  the 
completion  of  the  Sutro  Tunnel,  and  as  regards  ventilation, 
will  do  all  that  could  be  expected  of  the  tunnel.  As  two  or 
three  of  the  leading  mines  are  already  working  at  a  depth  of 
nearly  2,500  feet,  the  big  shaft  must  be  looked  to  for  ventila- 
tion everywhere  below  the  depth  of  2,000  feet ;  therefore  below 
this  depth  drifts  will  doubtless  be  run  between  the  lode  and 
the  shaft  at  frequent  intervals. 

Owing  to  the  lead  dipping  to  the  east  at  an  angle  of  from 
thirty  to  fifty  degrees,  the  distance  necessary  to  be  run  to 
connect  the  lode  and  shaft  will  constantly  decrease  until  at  a 
certain  depth  the  shaft  itself  will  cut  the  lead,  after  which 
time  the  drift  to  reach  and  ventilate  the  vein  must  be  run  to 
the  eastward.  A  branch-track  connects  this  shaft  with  the 
main  Virginia  and  Truckee  Railroad. 


CHAPTER  LXVII. 

BELOW    THE    WATER-DEPOSITS. 

IN  countries  where  no  mining  is  done  it  is  the  prevalent 
opinion  that  at  a  certain  depth  the  earth  is  full  of  water, 
and  that  the  deeper  we  go  the  more  water  will  abound. 
This  is  a  mistaken  notion.  After  delving  beyond  certain  bounds, 
water  ceases  to  be  generally  disseminated  in  the  earth.  This  is 
after  we  have  gone  below  the  "  scalp  "  or  surface-water  of  the 
country.  Until  we  have  passed  through  this  scalp,  water  is 
found  almost  everywhere.  This  being  the  case,  it  is  quite 
natural  that  persons  residing  in  countries  where  wells  sunk  in 
search  of  a  supply  of  water  are  the  deepest  works  of  the  kind 
undertaken,  should  imagine  overwhelming  floods  of  water  to 
exist  everywhere  far  down  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth. 

In  Nevada — and  the  rule  probably  holds  good  in  every 
country — after  passing  the  more  open  and  softer  matter — drift 
and  rock — there  is  reached  the  solid  rocky  mass  forming  what 
might  be  termed  the  "  skull  "  of  the  earth — the  hard  shell  lying 
between  the  comparatively  spongy  exterior  strata,  and  the  molten 
interior  mass.  This  intermediate  shell  of  hard  rock  is  where 
the  miners  along  the  Comstock  are  now  delving  in  all  the 
deeper  mines.  Here  we  find  that  solid  rock  takes  the  place 
of  water  in  most  situations — solid  rock  is  the  rule.  When  the 
rock  is  not  solid  and  perfectly  homogeneous,  there  water  finds 
its  way  and  forms  subterranean  reservoirs  of  all  sizes  and  shapes, 
which,  in  mining  parlance,  are  called  "pockets." 

These  pockets  may  be  of  almost  any  shape,  but  are  generally 
in  the  form  of  a  crevice.  As  a  rule,  the  crevices  are  not  open 
spaces  like  caverns,  but  are  filled  with  some  permeable  material 

501 


502  BELOW  THE  WATER. 

into  which  the  water  may   find   its  way  and    settle,  as  in  the 
ground  composing  the  "  scalp  "  above. 

The  water  at  the  depth  of  from  1,000  to  2,000  feet  lies  in 
detached  bodies.  In  the  country-rock  (the  rock  lying  on  each 
side  of  a  vein  and  forming  the  general  rock  of  the  country)  there 
are  fewer  of  these  pockets  of  water  than  within  the  bounds  of  a 
vein,  as  the  solidity  and  homogenous  character  of  the  outside 
rock  leaves  no  space  in  which  water  may  be  contained.  The 
Comstock  lode  occupying  an  immense  fissure,  extending  into  the 
intermediate  crust  of  the  earth  to  an  indeterminate  depth, 
there  are  naturally  many  openings  in  it,  through  which  water 
may  descend ;  besides,  the  material  of  which  the  vein  is  com- 
posed is  in  general  much  softer,  and  therefore  more  pervious 
than  the  great  mass  of  rock  outside  of  the  vein.  The  pockets  of 
water  are  confined  within  walls  of  clay  or  hard,  impervious  rock. 
Thus  drifts  may  be  run  on  all  sides  of,  and  even  under,  these 
subterranean  reservoirs,  and  no  water  is  seen  until  the  confining 
walls  are  cut.  When  a  body  of  clay  is  encountered  and  there  is 
reason  to  suspect  that  a  body  of  water  is  being  approached,  a 
long  drill  is  used  with  which  to  feel  the  way  in  advance  of  the 
drift,  and  let  the  water  out,  if  any  there  be,  in  a  controllable 
stream.  Were  the  miners  to  push  ahead  with  a  drift  of  full 
size,  the  pressure  of  water  would  presently  burst  in  the  whole 
face  of  their  opening,  tear  down  the  timbers,  cause  extensive 
caving  of  the  ground,  and  perhaps  flood  everything,  and  drown 
the  men  before  they  could  escape. 

When  once  the  works  of  a  mine  have  been  carried  down  into 
the  solid  shell  of  the  earth,  the  work  of  draining  any  body  of 
water  that  may  be  encountered  is  a  mere  question  of  time.  If 
the  underground  cistern  is  small  it  is  soon  pumped  out;  if  large 
it  takes  a  proportionally  longer  time,  the  same  pump  being  used 
in  each  case;  but,  sooner  or  later,  it  must  be  exhausted.  If 
water  were  not  thus  found  in  detached  bodies  (instead  of  being 
universally  diffused)  in  that  zone  of  the  earth  under  consideration, 
there  could  be  mining  under  seas,  lakes,  and  rivers,  as  is  now 
successfully  practiced  in  many  countries. 

In  illustration  of  the  manner  in  which  miners  often  drift  under 
and  around  bodies  of  water,  I  may  give  an  incident  of  the  early 
days  of  Washoe,  when  drifts  and  tunnels  had  not  yet  drained  off 


BOTTOM  DROPPED  OUT.  503 

the  "surface-water,  and  wells  were  yet  a  possibility  in  Virginia 
City. 

A  lady  resident  of  the  town  one  day  went  to  a  well  in  her 
door-yard  to  draw  some  water.  Being  in  haste,  she  let  the 
bucket  go  down  from  the  windlass  "  by  the  run,"  and  the  instant 
it  struck  the  water  out  dropped  the  whole  bottom  of  the  well. 
Every  drop  of  water  instantly  disappeared  and  nought  was  seen 
where  it  had  been,  but  a  black,  yawning  chasm  in  which  hung 
and  dangled  the  bucket.  Amazed  almost  beyond  the  power 
of  speech,  the  lady  for  a  time  stood  and  gazed  into  the  bottomless 
well,  then  rushed  to  the  house.  She  had  considered  the  matter 
and  comprehended  it. 

"  What  did  I  tell  you  ?  "  cried  she,  addressing  her  rather  easy- 
going husband.  "  I  knew  that  the  men  who  dug  that  well  were 
taking  no  pains  with  their  work  !  " 

"What  is  the  matter  now?  "  said  the  husband. 

"  Matter  ? — matter  enough  !  The  bottom  has  dropped  out  of 
the  well !  " 

"  Bottom  dropped  out  of  the  well !  "  exclaimed  the  husband,, 
beginning  to  become  interested. 

"Yes:  the  bottom  has  dropped  out  of  the  well,  and  I  am  not 
at  all  surprised — I  am  not  one  bit  astonished  !  I  knew  when  I 
saw  the  men  putting  the  bottom  in  that  well  that  it  would  never 
be  of  any  account !  " 

The  cause  of  the  accident  was  simple  enough.  The  well  had 
been  dug  in  the  line  of  a  tunnel  advancing  from  a  distant  point 
below.  The  miners,  all  unconcious  of  the  presence  of  the"  well, 
had  drifted  under  it,  and  at  no  great  distance  below  its  bottom. 
Being  without  adequate  support  the  bottom  must  soon  have 
fallen  out,  of  its  own  accord,  but  the  sudden  jar  of  the  bucket  on 
the  surface  of  the  water  undoubtedly  precipitated  the  eVent.  A 
peculiar  kind  of  clay  is  found  in  many  places  on  the  Comstock 
lode  which  is  not  a  little  curious  on  account  of  its  creeping  pro- 
pensities. A  stratum  of  this  clay  will  be  seen  to  crawl  out  into 
tunnels  and  other  openings  in  a  manner  much  resembling  the 
action  of  the  toy  known  as  Pharaoh's  serpents  You  are  unable 
to  see  where  it  is  coming  from  or  what  moves  it,  yet  it  is  con- 
stantly crawling  out  into  all  the  openings  that  reach  it. 

In  places   where  drifts   have   been  run  into   this  clay  it  is 


504:  CREEPING  PROPENSITIES. 

necessary  to  keep  one  or  two  men  constantly  at  work  at 
cutting  it  away  in  order  to  keep  the  drifts  open  and  passable. 
This  is  not  owing  to  the  slaking  and  swelling  of  the  exposed 
surface,  as  in  that  case  after  a  few  removals  of  the  surplus 
material  a  hole  would  be  left,  and  there  would  be  no  more 
trouble.  The  whole  body  of  the  clay  appears  to  be  creeping. 
It  has  the  almost  imperceptible  motion  of  the  glacier,  irresistibly 
advancing,  crushing  everything  in  the  shape  of  timbers  that  may 
be  placed  before  it.  All  that  can  then  be  done  is  to  set  men  to 
work  at  cutting  it  off  as  fast  as  it  comes  out.  The  cause  of  this 
creeping  is  probably  to  be  found  in  the  pressure  of  the  superin- 
cumbent or  surrounding  strata  of  rock.  Its  motion  is  not 
unlike  that  seen  in  the  straightening  out  of  a  piece  of  pith  that 
has  been  compressed.  There  is  a  limit  to  this  creeping  power 
of  the  clay,  but  it  is  not  reached  till  many  feet  have  crept  out 
into  the  drift,  tunnel,  shaft,  or  chamber,  and  have  been  cut  off 
and  removed.  Its  action  is  so  mysterious  that  some  of  the 
miners  are  ready  to  explain  it  by  saying  that  the  clay  comes  out 
and  fills  up  the  drifts  because  "Nature  abhors  a  vacuum." 

If  left  to  its  course  the  clay  would  very  soon  close  up  the  drift, 
as  completely  as  if  none  had  ever  been  made.  Thousands  of 
feet  of  drifts  and  tunnels  in  the  mines  are  closed  in  this  way. 

In  the  Caledonia  mine,  American  Flat,  much  trouble  was 
experienced  with  this  creeping  clay.  On  one  occasion  a  streak 
of  it  two  or  three  feet  in  width  continued  to  rise  from  the  floor 
of  a  tunnel  until  over  thirty  feet  had  thus  come  up  and  been  cut 
off.  It  is  bad  anywhere,  but  is  most  mischievous  in  the  main 
shaft.  For  this  reason  mining  men  always  seek  a  spot  in  which 
to  put  down  such  shafts,  where  they  are  likely  to  pass  through 
solid  "  country-rock  "  to  a  great  depth  below  surface.  The  sad 
experience  of  early  days  taught  them  this  lesson.  The  clay  is 
generally  found  within  the  wrall  of  the  vein.  It  abounds  in  the 
mines  south  of  Gold  Hill,  about  American  Flat.  The  ordinary 
clay  found  next  to  the  foot,  and  hanging  walls  in  all  mines  is 
liable  to  swell — on  account  of  the  lime  it  contains — when  exposed 
to  atmospheric  action,  but  after  the  pressure  on  the  timbers  has 
been  eased  by  cuttting  away  behind  them  a  few  times,  there  is 
no  more  trouble. 

The  power  of  this  swelling,   slacking  clay  is    immense.     It 


A  SKULL  DISCOVERED.  505 

crushes  in,  and  splinters  all  the  timbers  that  can  be  placed 
before  it :  it  somewhat  resembles  the  power  exerted  in  the  expan- 
sion and  contraction  of  large  masses  of  iron,  as  seen  in  iron 
bridges  and  similar  structures.  The  following  curious  Comstock 
"  find  "  may  be  of  interest  to  some  readers. 

In  working  out  the  first  or  upper  bonanza  of  the  Ophir  mine, 
there  was  brought  to  light  a  human  skull  of  a  very  ancient  and 
curious  type.  The  skull  was  dug  out  where  a  drift  was  being 
run  in  the  ore-body  at  a  depth  of  about  three  hundred  feet 
below  the  surface.  It  was  brought  out,  and  dumped  with  a  car- 
load of  ore,  not  being  observed  by  the  miners.  United  States 
District  Judge  A.  W.  Baldwin,  since  killed  by  a  railroad  acci- 
dent in  California,  happened  to  be  present  when  the  car-load  of 
ore  was  dumped.  Seeing  an  object  of  peculiar  shape  roll 
toward  his  feet  among  the  ore  dumped  from  the  car,  the  Judge 
picked  it  up,  and  found  it  to  be  a  human  skull  of  a  peculiar  form 
and  thickly  crusted  over  with  sulphuret  of  silver.  He  carried  it 
into  town  and  presented  it  to  Wm.  Shepard,  of  the  firm  of  Tinker 
&  Shepard,  who  placed  it  in  a  cabinet  of  curiosities,  where  it 
still  remains. 

The  skull  attracted  no  attention  outside  of  Virginia  City  until 
1874,  when,  mention  being  made  of  it  in  the  newspapers,  the 
Academy  of  Sciences,  of  San  Francisco,  sent  for  it  for  the 
purpose  of  making  a  critical  examination  of  it.  While  it  was  in 
San  Francisco  a  plaster  cast  was  made  of  it,  and  at  a  meeting  of 
the  Academy  of  Sciences,  Dr.  Blake  exhibited  the  cast  and 
spoke  of  it  as  follows :  "  There  is  in  this  skull  a  peculiarity  that 
is  seen  in  some  of  the  ancient  Peruvian  skulls,  namely,  on  inter- 
parietal  bone.  The  general  contour  01  the  skull  is  of  a  very  low 
type;  the  anterior  portion  is  very  slightly  developed  and 
receding;  the  hinder  portion  is  largely  developed.  It  bears  a 
similarity  to  the  skull  of  the  carnivorous  apes,  the  cavity  for  the 
lower  jaw-bone  being  very  deep  and  not  allowing  of  any  grind- 
ing motion  of  the  jaws.  The  skull  when  found  was  covered 
with  a  metallic  layer.  It  is  of  a  different  type  from  any  that 
have  been  found,  and  belonged  to  a  carnivorous  man,  who  could 
walk  easier  on  all  fours  than  on  two  feet."  Several  ancient 
Peruvian  skulls  were  then  produced  In  order  to  show  the  inter- 
parietal  bone. 


506 


AN  UNLUCKY  SLIP. 


Professor  Whitney  was  very  anxious  to  be  allowed  to  send  the 
skull  to  the  Atlantic  States  and  Europe,  but  the  owners  would 
not  part  wi}h  it  for  that  purpose.  The  plaster  cast  taken  was 
sent  to  Dr.  J.  Wyman,  of  Cambridge.  It  would  seem  that  the 
conclusion  arrived  at  in  San  Francisco  was  that  the  skull  was 
that  of  a  man  belonging  to  a  pre-historic  race.  He  probably 
was  adorned  with  a  tail.  At  the  time  the  great  fissure  was 
formed  in  which  the  Comstock  lode  was  deposited,  or  perhaps 
at  the  time  the  fissure  was  being  filled  with  its  rich  ores,  this 
pre-historic  creature  was  probably  fooling  about  the  edge  of  the 
chasm,  looking  down  into  it  to  see  what  discoveries  he  could 
make,  when  the  earth  crumbled  beneath  his  weight,  and  he 
rolled  down  and  was  incorporated  in  the  heart  of  the  vein.  His 
sad  fate  must  have  proved  a  salutary  warning  to  all  others  of 
his  tribe,  as  his  skull  is  the  only  thing  in  the  way  of  ancient 
human  remains  that  has  ever  been  found  in  any  mine  on  the 
lode. 


CHAPTER  LXVIII. 

SOME   INTERESTING  CREATURES. 

are  in  operation,  in  all,  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
Comstock,  mills,  the  aggregate  of  whose  stamps  is  over 
one  thousand. 

The  Consolidated  Virginia  Company  give  employment  to 
the  following  mills:  Consolidated  mill,  sixty  stamps  and 
crushing  capacity  of  230  tons  per  day;  Sacramento  mill,  50 
tons;  Mariposa,  12  stamps,  40  tons;  Hoosier  State,  18  stamps, 
50  tons;  Devil's  Gate,  10  stamps,  35  tons;  Kelsey,  15  stamps, 
45  tons;  Bacon,  20  stamps,  50  tons;  Occidental,  20  stamps,  50 
tons;  total,  195  stamps,  600  tons  per  day.  The  pay-roll  of  the 
men  employed  in  these  mills  amounts  to  $35,000  per  month. 

At  Silver  City,  about  five  miles  below  Virginia  City,  on 
Gold  Canon,  are  a  considerable  number  of  fine  mills  (some  of 
those  mentioned  above  among  the  number)  Fn  all  of  which 
steam  is  the  motive  power.  A  branch  of  the  Virginia  and 
Truckee  Railroad  runs  to  Silver  City  and  supplies  these  mills 
with  ore,  wood,  and  all  other  articles  required.  Near  the 
town  are  several  mines — the  Silver  Hill,  Dayton,  Kossuth, 
Daney,  and  Buckeye — on  which  are  in  operation  first-class 
hoisting-works,  and  the  southern  continuation  of  the  Com- 
stock is  supposed  to  pass  through  the  ground  on  which  the 
village  stands.  It  is  already  a  lively  camp,  boasts  a  tri-weekly 
newspaper — the  Lyon  County  Times — and  should  the  hopes 
of  the  mining-companies  now  at  work  in  that  vicinity  be 
realized,  will  soon  be  one  of  the  leading  mining-towns  of  the 
State. 

On  the  Carson  River  are  a  large  number  of  first-class 

509 


510  CARSON  CITY. 


reduction-works  that  are  driven  by  water-power.  The  Eu- 
reka mill,  of  the  Union  Mill  and  Mining  Company,  of  which 
company  Mr.  Sharon  is  a  principal  stockholder,  is  one  of  the 
finest  mills  on  the  river.  It  contains  sixty  stamps  (the  same 
number  as  the  Consolidated  Virginia  mill)  and  is  provided 
with  a  proportionate  amount  of  amalgamating-machinery.  It 
is  run  on  ore  from  the  Belcher  mine.  It  is  connected  with 
the  Virginia  and  Truckee  Railroad  by  a  tramway  over  two 
miles  in  length.  The  Brunswick  mill,  also  on  the  river,  con- 
tains fifty-six  stamps  and  works  Crown  Point  ore.  The 
Merrimac,  Santiago,  Morgan,  and  Mexican  mills  are  all  on 
the  Carson  River  and  receive  their  supplies  of  ore  over  the 
Virginia  and  Truckee  Railroad.  Some  of  these  mills  are 
very  picturesquely  situated,  being  surrounded  by  high,  rocky 
hills  and  having  near  them,  on  the  bars  of  the  river,  handsome 
groves  of  willow  and  cottonwood  trees. 

Carson  City  contains  no  mills,  but  the  interests  of  her 
business  men  are  identified  with  those  of  the  mining  towns 
above.  The  town,  which  contains  about  8,000  inhabitants,  is 
situated  in  Eagle  Valley,  at  the  base  of  the  Sierra  Nevada 
Mountains,  and  contains  many  fine  buildings,  both  public 
and  private.  Carson  City  is  the  capital  of  the  State.  The 
capitol  building  and  the  United  States'  Mint  are  imposing 
structures,  built  of  a  handsome  grey  sandstone  obtained  at 
the  State  Prison  quarry,  about  one  mile  east  of  the  town. 
The  Virginia  and  Truckee  Railroad  Company  have  large 
machine-shops  and  other  large  and  substantial  buildings  at 
Carson. 

At  Carson  trees  are  grown,  and  about  the  town  are  to  be 
seen  some  very  handsome  private  grounds.  The  plaza  sur- 
rounding the  State  House,  some  ten  acres  in  extent,  is  inclosed 
by  a  handsome  wrought-iron  fence,  the  successful  bidder  for 
the  construction  of  which  was  an  enterprising  New  England 
schoolmarm. 

Although  Carson  is  an  oasis  where  something  in  the  shape 
of  verdure  refreshes  the  eye,  yet  to  the  eastward,  northward, 
and  in  all  directions  but  westward — where  the  Sierras  rise — 
all  the  landscape  is  made  up  of  brown  and  sterile  hills  and 
mountains  capped  with  piles  of  grey  granite.  These  hills  are 


LIZARDS  AND  SCORPIONS.  511 

not  only  barren  and  dreary  in  aspect,  but  are,  in  fact,  as  deso- 
late as  they  appear.  In  travelling  among  the  rocky  hills  and 
desert  valleys  there  is  apparent  an  absence  of  animal  life  that 
causes  one  to  feel  very  lonely.  Out  in  the  great  wilds  all  is 
silence.  Not  the  note  of  a  bird  is  heard — not  a  bird  is  seen. 
Although  the  wind  may  be  blowing  a  gale,  nothing  is  stirred 
by  it,  for  there  is  nothing  to  stir.  It  seems  strange  to  feel  the 
force  of  the  wind,  yet  hear  no  sound  from  it  nor  see  anything 
moved  by  it.  In  these  wild  regions  we  find  basking  upon  the 
rocks  or  gambolling  over  the  barren  ground  great  numbers 
of  lizards.  They  are  seen  in  great  variety,  and  some  of  them 
are  very  handsome,  being  striped  in  red,  yellow,  black,  white, 
brown,  and  many  other  colors.  Some  kinds  are  over  a  foot 
in  length.  All  are  very  active,  and  it  is  a  difficult  matter  to 
catch  them.  Some  of  the  larger  kinds  have  long  and  sharp 
teeth  and  know  how  to  use  them.  I  have  never  heard  of  any- 
one being  bitten  by  one  of  them,  but  th£  Mexicans  say  that 
the  bite  of  one  variety,  which  has  a  black  ring  round  its  neck, 
is  fatal. 

On  one  occasion  I  assisted  a  gentlemen  in  catching  a  dozen 
or  more  of  all  kinds,  the  object  being  to  preserve  them  in 
alcohol.  They  were  placed  in  a  sack  as  caught.  On  getting 
home  with  them,  after  carrying  them  about  two  miles,  it  was 
found  that  they  had  torn  each  other  to  ribbons. 

A  curious  little  reptile  is  found  everywhere  throughout  the 
country,  which  is  called  a  horned  toad.  It  grows  to  be  four 
or  five  inches  in  length  and  looks  like  a  cross  between  a 
lizard  and  a  terrapin.  What  are  called  its  horns  are  nothing 
more  than  several  diamond-shaped  scales  that  grow  on  its 
head,  and  which  it  has  the  power  to  erect  or  depress.  It  is  of 
a  buff  color,  sprinkled  with  spots  of  dull  red.  Like  the  cha- 
meleon, it  appears  to  live  on  air.  Specimens  have  been  kept 
for  months  in  glass  jars  and  have  never  been  seen  to  eat, 
though  flies  and  other  insects  in  abundance  were  furnished 
them.  Persons  in  Nevada  sometimes  send  these  pets  to  friends 
in  the  Atlantic  States  through  the  mails.  They  generally  go 
through  all  right.  Scorpions  abound  among  the  loose  rock 
on  the  sides  of  the  hills.  They  have  a  sting  in  the  end  of  the 
tail  with  which  they  are  very  handy.  Their  sting  is  very 
29 


512  A  PLEASING  INSECT. 

painful,  but  not  fatal.  The  antidote  is  ammonia,  taken  inter- 
nally, and  rubbed  upon  the  wound.  These  unpleasant  crea- 
tures are  from  three  to  five  inches  in  length,  and  present 
much  the  appearance  of  a  shrimp  or  a  craw-fish.  When  the 
prospector  is  camped  in  the  hills  the  scorpion  is  fond  of 
crawling  down  his  neck  as  he  lies  sleeping  on  the  ground. 
When  objection  is  made  to  this  familiarity  the  scorpion  uses 
his  sting. 

A  few  centipedes  are  found  in  the  country,  but  they  are  not 
very  large  or  venomous,  and  are  not  much  boasted  of.  In  the 
spring  of  1875,  a  lady  residing  in  Silver  City  awoke  one  night 
to  find  something  crawling  about  in  her  bed,  and  getting  a 
light  discovered  it  to  be  a  centipede  about  eight  inches  in 
length.  She  was  stung  in  two  or  three  places  by  the  insect, 
but  eventually  recovered.  In  countries  further  south  the 
centipede  is  more  dreaded  than  the  rattlesnake. 

Tarantulas  are  abundant  in  Nevada,  but  persons  are  seldom 
bitten  by  them.  They  are  sometimes  so  large  that  they  stand 
three  inches  high  when  walking,  and  their  legs  and  bodies 
covered  with  hair  as  long  as  that  of  a  mouse.  Their  fangs 
are  about  the  length  of  those  of  a  rattlesnake,  and  the  little, 
round  mouth  from  which  they  project  is  blood-red.  When 
the  end  of  an  iron  ramrod  is  presented  to  them  their  fangs 
may  be  heard  to  grate  upon  it.  They  make  a  nest  in  the 
ground  about  four  inches  in  diameter,  which  is  lined  by  a 
fabric,  spun  by  the  creature  itself,  which  is  as  fine  and  glossy 
as  white  satin.  A  lid,  made  of  small  bits  of  rock  and  soil 
glued  together,  covers  the  entrance  to  the  nest.  The  under 
side  of  the  lid  is  also  lined  with  the  satin-like  substance,  and 
is  hung  on  a  hinge  of  the  same.  Although  the  tarantula 
travels  slowly,  yet  when  it  has  reached  its  nest  it  darts  within 
it  and  closes  the  lid  so  quickly  that  the  eye  can  hardly  follow 
its  motions.  When  the  lid  of  the  nest  has  been  closed  it  is  a 
difficult  matter  to  distinguish  it,  as  its  upper  side  presents 
precisely  the  same  appearance  as  the  pebbles  and  earth  sur- 
rounding it.  Once  it  is  within  its  nest  the  tarantula  is  able 
to  hold  the  lid  down  and  to  resist  any  small  force  used  for 
the  purpose  of  raising  it.  When  the  lid  is  raised  the  creature 
shrinks  back  in  its  nest  and  there  sits  with  its  malignant 
little  eyes  shining  like  two  beads  of  jet. 


A    WICKED   WA  Y  OF  LA  YING  EGGS.  513 

By  using  great  care  the  nest  of  the  tarantula  may  be  ex- 
tracted from  the  ground,  when  it  is  found  to  be  a  ball  about 
four  inches  in  diameter  composed  of  agglutinated  pebbles, 
bits  of  clay,  and  other  components  of  the  soil  in  which  it  is 
built.  In  this  shape  they  are  sometimes  placed  in  cabinets 
with  the  tarantula  imprisoned  within,  a  thread  being  tied  over 
the  lid  of  the  nest.  A  tarantula,  however,  is  not  a  very  desi- 
rable pet.  The  tarantula  has  an  enemy  in  a  large  wasp,  of 
which  he  stands  in  mortal  fear.  When  the  tarantula  goes  out 
for  a  quiet  stroll  this  wasp  frequently  finds  him,  and  if  he  is 
more  than  a  few  feet  away  from  his  nest  he  never  reaches  it. 

As  vultures  appear  to  drop  out  of  the  sky  when  an  animal 
has  fallen  dead  in  the  desert,  so  this  wasp,  the  deadly  enemy 
of  the  tarantula,  comes  upon  the  scene.  Straight  as  an  arrow 
from  the  bow,  and  as  swift  as  light,  he  comes  from  the  upper 
air  and  pierces  the  tarantula  through  the  body/  The  taran- 
tula turns  upon  his  back  and  in  mortal  terror  claws  the  air, 
but  the  wasp  has  disappeared — can  nowhere  be  seen.  After 
watching  for  a  time,  with  his  legs  in  the  air,  the  tarantula  gets 
upon  his  feet  and  travels  at  his  best  pace  for  his  nest. 
Almost  instantly  there  is  a  whiz,  and  the  wasp  has  given  him 
another  thrust — perhaps  two  stabs,  as  he  is  quick  as  lightning. 

Although  I  have  called  the  enemy  of  the  tarantula  a  wasp, 
it  is  not  a  wasp,  though  looking  much  like  one.  The  lance 
which  it  thrusts  into  the  tarantula  is  not  a  sting,  but  an  ova- 
positor,  and  at  each  stab  an  egg  is  deposited  in  the  body  of 
the  tarantula.  'All  this  appears  to  be  well  understood  by  the 
tarantula  himself  and  from  the  time  the  first  egg  has  been 
planted  in  his  back  he  seems  to  feel  that  his  days  are  num- 
bered ;  as  the  egg  will  soon  hatch  a  grub — a  worm — that  will 
devour  his  vitals.  At  each  encounter  the  tarantula  throws 
himself  upon  his  back  and  tries  to  fend  off  or  to  grasp  his 
antagonist  with  his  claws,  but  the  wasp  patiently  waits  some- 
where high  in  the  air,  till  he  gets  upon  his  feet,  then  darts 
down  and  pierces  him  with  his  lance.  The  tarantula  soon 
grows  weak,  and  then  the  wasp  thrusts  into  his  body  half  a 
dozen  eggs  at  each  visit.  Soon  the  tarantula  is  unable  to 
move  and  after  a  few  stabs  is  quite  dead.  The  wasp  then  digs 
a  hole  in  the  ground  two  or  three  inches  in  depth,  crams  the 


514 


ANOTHER  AGREEABLE  INSECT. 


dead  tarantula  down  to  the  bottom  of  it,  and  then  closes  it  up. 
When  the  eggs  of  the  wasp  hatch,  the  young  grubs  find  their 
food  at  hand  in  the  body  of  the  dead  tarantula. 

Another  agreeable  insect  found  in  the  hills  of  Nevada  is  an 
ant  that  is  armed  with  a  sting.  It  is  black  in  color,  and  has 
a  few  scattering  orange-colored  hairs  on  its  back.  It  is  sel- 
dom seen,  and  appears  to  lead  even  a  more  solitary  and 
secluded  life  than  does  the  tarantula. 


JOHN  MACKEY. 


CHAPTER  LXIX. 

MILLIONAIRE   PROPRIETORS. 

A  CHAPTER  giving  a  few  words  in  regard  to  persons 
prominently   connected  with  the  big  bonanza  and  the 
Comstock  lode  may  be  of  interest  to  some  readers.     I 
cannot  undertake  to  give  more  than  the  outlines  in  each  instance. 
The  biography  of  almost  any   man  who  has  been  ten  years  on 
the  Pacific  Coast  would  make  a  larg§  volume,  were  all  of  his 
experiences  written  up 

John  Mackey  Esq.  the  millionaire  miner  of  the  "  big  bonanza," 
was  born  in  the  city  of  Dublin,  Ireland,  and  served  his  time  as 
a  ship-carpenter.  He  came  to  California  soon  after  the  discov- 
ery of  gold,  and  mined  at  and  near  Downieville,  Sierra  county, 
for  many  years.  In  the  placer-mines  he  had  his  "ups  and 
downs  "  the  same  as  other  miners,  and  often  did  a  vast  amount 
of  hard  work  for  a  small  amount  of  gold.  Mr.  Mackey  came  to 
the  silver-mines  of  Washoe  in  the  early  days,  and  for  a  time 
after  his  arrival  worked  for  wages  at  the  Mexican  and  other 
mines — swinging  a  pick  and  shovel  as  an  ordinary  miner.  It 
was  not  long,  however,  before  he  began  tc  get  ahead  financially, 
and,  it  is  said,  made  his  first  "  raise  "  in  the  Kentuck  mine, 
Gold  Hill.  He  finally  obtained  a  large  interest  in  the  Hale  & 
Norcross  mine,  Virginia  City.  Here  he  took  Mr.  Fair  in  as  a 
partner  and  the  two  men  secured  control  of  the  mine,  rescinded 
an  assessment  that  had  been  levied,  and  began  paying  dividends. 
The  Hale  &  Norcross  being  "  in  bonanza,"  the  partners  soon 
had  money  with  which  to  secure  other  mines.  Finally,  in  com- 
pany with  Messrs  Flood  &  O'Brien,  of  San  Francisco,  they 
purchased  the  Consolidated  Virginia  ground,  getting  it  for  about 

517 


518  MR,  JOHN  MA  CKE  Y. 

$80,000,  and  eventually  acquired  a  controlling  interest  in  the 
California  mine. 

Although  Mr.  Mackey  is  now  worth  fifty  or  sixty  million 
dollars,  yet,  like  Mr.  Fair,  he  spends  much  of  his  time,  when  at 
Virginia  City,  in  the  lower  levels.  Almost  every  morning  at  six 
o'clock  he  descends  into  one  or  another  of  his  mines,  and  often 
remains  underground  for  several  hours,  passing  through  all  the 
levels  where  work  is  being  done,  when  there  is  anything  that 
requires  his  attention.  In  passing  through  a  level  he  sees  all 
that  is  going  on  at  a  glance.  Mr.  Mackey  is  one  of  the  most 
modest  and  unassuming  of  men,  yet  he  is  a  shrewd  observer  of 
character,  and  of  all  that  is  going  on  in  the  world  about  him. 
Generally  he  has  but  little  to  say,  but  that  little  is  to  the  point 
— goes  directly  to  the  bull's-eye.  He  is  not  often  misunderstood. 
He  most  thoroughly  understands  mining  in  all  its  branches,  as 
there  is  nothing  required  to  be  done  in  a  mine  that  he  has 
not  done  with  his  own  hands.  No  man  is  more  ready  to  adopt 
improvements  than  Mr.  Mackey.  He  is  ever  ready  to  spend 
money  for  labor-saving  machinery.  Those  of  his  men  who 
imagine  they  have  discovered  a  new  plan  of  doing  any  kind  of 
work  whereby  a  saving  in  time  or  muscle  can  be  effected,  always 
find  an  attentive  listener  in  Mr.  Mackey,  and  all  the  encourage- 
ment they  require.  He  frequently  stimulates  their  inventive 
faculties  by  telling  them  of  certain  things  for  which  he  desires 
some  new  mode  of  working  to  be  thought  out,  or  some  new 
machine  to  be  constructed. 

Although  one  of  the  most  kind-hearted  and  generous  of  men 
— as  the  hundreds  he  has  befriended  can  testify — I  may  here 
state,  for  the  benefit  of  a  certain  class  of  persons,  that  he  pays 
no  attention  to  the  bushels  of  silly  begging-letters  which  he 
receives  from  all  parts  of  the  United  States  and  even  from  the 
remotest  corners  of  Europe — all  are  tumbled  into  his  waste- 
basket. 

Notwithstanding  that  Mr.  Fair  is  the  superintendent  of  the 
mine  owned  by  the  firm,  Mr.  Mackey  also  does  duty  as  super- 
intendent, and  the  pair  generally  hold  a  grand  council  on  all 
matters  of  moment.  When  this  council  is  in  session  in  the 
private  office  at  the  works,  the  miners  in  passing  back  and  forth 
hold  up  their  fingers  to  one  another  as  a  sign  that  no  noise  is  to 


HOTT.  "WILLIAM  SHARON. 


THE  HON.   WILLIAM  SHARON.  521 

be  made  that  will  interfere  with  the  deliberations  that  are  in 
progress  near  at  hand.  No  man  in  Nevada  more  thoroughly 
understands  the  Comstock  lode  than  Mr.  Mackey.  He  has  made 
it  his  study  for  years.  No  change  of  rock  can  occur  but  that 
he  knows  what  it  portends.  He  appears  to  know  almost  every 
clay-seam,  and  streak  of  quartz,  and  porphyry  that  runs  through 
the  vein.  By  looking  at  a  sample  of  ore  he  can  tell  the  amount 
of  silver  it  contains  almost  as  well  as  if  he  had  seen  it  assayed. 
He  is  particularly  at  home  in  the  northern  part  of  the  Comstock, 
where  he  has  had  most  acquaintance  with  the  mines,  and  may 
be  said  to  have  that  part  of  the  lode  by  heart.  As  regards 
mining  knowledge,  Mr.  Mackey  is  the  "  boss  "  of  the  big  bonanza. 

The  Hon.  William  Sharon,  who  for  many  years  figured  so 
prominently  in  the  mining  and  milling  interests  of  the  Comstock 
lode  as  to  earn  for  himself  the  title  of  the  "King  of  the  Com- 
stock," was  born  in  Jefferson  county,  Ohio,  in  1821.  His 
family  were  Quakers  and  his  ancestors  were  among  those  who 
settled  at  Philadelphia  with  William  Penn.  When  a  boy  of 
seventeen  Mr.  Sharon  thought  that  the  life  of  a  boatman  would 
suit  him.  He  purchased  an  interest  in  a  flatboat,  and  started 
down  the  Ohio  River,  bound  for  New  Orleans,  but  "  landed  his 
boat  "  when  he  reached  Louisville.  At  this  point  the  boat 
struck  a  rock  in  crossing  the  falls,  and  was  left  a  total  wreck. 
Mr.  Sharon  then  returned  to  his  native  town  disgusted  with  a 
"  seafaring  "  life,  and  went  to  college  a  few  years,  then  studied 
law  and  practiced  for  a  time  in  St.  Louis,  Missouri. 

Giving  up  the  practice  of  law  on  account  of  bad  health,  he 
figured  as  a  merchant,  at  Carrollton,  Illinois,  until  the  discovery 
of  gold  in  California.  He  was  among  those  who  crossed  the 
Plains  in  1849,  and  in  August  of  that  year  reached  Sacramento, 
where  he  purchased  a  stock  of  goods  and  opened  a  store.  The 
floods  of  the  winter  of  1849-50  swept  his  stock  into  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  leaving  him  about  as  he  was  left  when  he  struck  the 
falls  at  Louisville,  on  the  Ohio  River. 

After  his  store  had  been  carried  away  by  the  flood  he  went 
down  to  San  Francisco  and  opened  a  real-estate  office.  He 
continued  in  this  business  until  1864,  and  had  accumulated  a 
fortune  of  $150,000,  when  he  began  speculating  in  mining-stock. 
In  this  he  again  struck  the  Louisville  Falls  and  again  "  landed 


522  HOW  HIS  FORTUNE   WAS  MADE. 

his  boat,"  a  total  wreck.  Being  once  more  foot-loose  and  ready 
for  anything  that  might  offer  in  the  way  of  business,  he  was 
sent  over  the  Sierras  to  Virginia  City,  Nevada,  by  the  Bank  of 
California  to  look  after  certain  of  the  affairs  of  that  institution 
which  required  attention.  After  reaching  Virginia  City  he  soon 
arranged  all  the  affairs  of  the  Bank  of  California,  and  while 
looking  about  and  probing  into  matters  in  so  doing,  was  shrewd 
enough  to  see  that  he  had  at  last  reached  the  place  where  all 
the  money  on  the  Pacific  Coast  was  coming  from*  He  at  once 
urged  upon  the  officers  of  the  Bank  of  California  the  necessity 
of  opening  a  branch  at  Virginia  City,  which  was  done  and  Mr. 
Sharon  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  new  institution,  with  un- 
limited powers.  He  remained  in  Virginia  City  a  number  of 
years  as  the  head  of  the  branch  bank  in  that  place,  and  finally 
resigned  in  order  to  look  after  affairs  of  his  own,  leaving  in  his 
place  an  excellent  and  capable  man  in  the  person  of  Mr.  A.  J. 
Ralston. 

Mr.  Sharon  is  the  father  of  the  Virginia  and  Truckee  Railroad, 
undoubtedly  the  crookedest  railroad  in  the  world,  and  a  wonder- 
ful road  in  many  other  respects.  In  building  fhis  road  Mr. 
Sharon  secured  a  subsidy  of  $500,000  from  the  people  of  Washoe 
in  aid  of  the  project,  constructed  as  much  of  the  road  as  the 
sum  would  build,  then  mortgaged  the  whole  road  for  the  amount 
of  money  required  for  its  completion.  In  this  way  he  built  the 
road  without  putting  his  hand  into  his  own  pocket  for  a  cent, 
and  he  still  owns  half  the  road — worth  $2,500,000  and  bringing 
him  in  as  Mr.  Adolph  Sutro  says,  $12,000  per  day.  On  this 
trip  he  got  his  boat  over  the  falls  in  good  shape.  The  road, 
however,  has  been  of  great  benefit  to  the  country,  and  Mr. 
Sharon  was  a  good  man  for  the  country  while  he  was  at  the 
head  of  the  Virginia  branch  of  the  Bank  of  California,  as  he  had 
the  nerve  to  advance  money  for  the  development  of  mines  and 
the  building  of  mills  at  the  time  when  no  outside  banking-house 
would  have  ventured  a  cent.  He  saw  that,  though  some  of  the 
mining  companies  were  in  "  borrasca  "  there  was  every  likelihood 
of  their  being  in  "  bonanza "  soon  again,  provided  they  were 
furnished  with  a  sum  sufficient  to  make  proper  explorations. 

Mr.  Sharon  is  the  principal  owner  of  the  Palace  Hotel,  San 
Francisco,  the  largest  and  most  costly  hotel  in  the  world,  and 


JAMES  G.  FA  1H. 
(Supt.  California  and  Consolidated  Virginia  JHnes.) 


MR.  JAMES  G.  FAIR.  525 

of  a  vast  deal  of  other  property  in  the  city  named,  and  in  various 
places  in  California  and  Nevada.  In  all  he  is  probably  worth 
seventy  or  eighty  million  dollars.  In  1874,  he  was  elected 
United  States'  Senator  from  Nevada,  for  six  years,  to  take  the 
place  of  Mr.  Stewart.  Mr.  Sharon  has  a  very  clear  head,  a 
thorough  understanding  of  financial  questions,  is  a  shrewd  busi- 
ness man,  and  a  man  of  large  capabilities  in  all  the  walks  of  life. 

James  G.  Fair  Esq.,  one  of  the  principal  owners  and  the 
superintendent  of  the  Consolidated  Virginia  and  California 
mines,  was  born  in  the  north  of  Ireland.  He  came  to  the 
United  States  in  his  youth  and  settled  in  Illinois.  Upon  the 
discovery  of  gold  in  California  he  determined  to  try  his  "luck" 
as  a  miner.  He  left  Illinois,  in  1849,  an<3  reached  California,  in 
August,  1830,  when  he  went  to  Long's  Bar,  Feather  River, 
called  by  the  Mexicans  el  Rio  de  los  Plumas — the  river  of 
feathers. 

On  Feather  River,  Mr.  Fair  learned  the  art  of  mining  for  gold 
in  the  bars  and  river  channels,  among  boulders  so  large  that  to 
look  at  them  made  one  sick  at  heart.  In  1860  he  gave  up 
mining  for  gold,  and  made  his  way  across  the  Sierras  to  Virginia 
City,  where  he  has  ever  since  made  his  home,  and  where  he  has 
constantly  been  engaged  in  mining  and  other  enterprises.  In 
1857  he  became  the  partner  of  John  Mackey  in  the  Hale  &  Nor- 
cross  mine,  when  both  he  and  Mr.  Mackey  made  a  "  snug  bit  " 
of  money. 

Since  becoming  partners,  Messrs  Mackey  &  Fair,  and  their 
associates,  Messrs  Flood  &  O'Brien,  of  San  Francisco,  who  are 
interested  with  them  in  many  speculations,  have  acquired  con- 
trolling interests  in  the  Gould  &  Curry,  Best  &  Belcher,  Consol- 
idated Virginia,  California,  Utah,  and  Occidental  mines;  also, of 
the  Virginia  City  and  Gold  Hill  Water-Works,  of  a  large  number 
of  quartz-mills,  of  the  Pacific  Wood,  Lumber,  &  Fluming  Com- 
pany, in  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains,  and  are  concerned  in 
various  enterprises  in  California.  Messrs  Mackey  &  Fair  also 
have  mines  in  Idaho,  Montana,  and  Utah — have  even  reached 
down  into  Georgia  and  taken  hold  of  some  of  the  gold-mines  in 
that  region,  sending  old  and  reliable  Comstock  mining  superin- 
tendents to  examine  and  test  the  mines.  They  have  probably 
also  viewed  the  New  Hampshire  silver-mines  through  their 


526  MR.  SAMUEL   T.  CURTIS. 

agents,  and  weighed  and  estimated  Silver  Isle,  Lake  Superior. 

At  the  time  of  the  Arizona  diamond  excitement,  and  swindle, 
Mr.  Fair  had  a  man  there  and  all  over  the  ground  as  soon  as  the 
first  whisper  in  regard  to  the  finding  of  precious  stones  in  that 
region  had  gone  abroad.  While  nobody  in  Virginia  City  knew 
that  he  was  taking  the  slightest  interest  in  the  diamond  excite- 
ment, or  that  he  had  even  heard  of  it,  Mr.  Fair  had  "  prospected  " 
the  whole  thing  and  found  out  all  about  it.  Still  he  said 
nothing,  and  probably  not  five  men  on  the  Comstock  range  to- 
day know  that  Mr.  Fair  was  close  upon  the  heels  of  the  men 
who -put  up  the  great  Arizona  diamond  swindle  and  prospected 
their  "  salted  "  ground  about  as  soon  as  the  "  salt  "  was  sown. 
He  now  has  in  his  house  at  Virginia  City  a  whole  drawerful  of 
stones  of  all  kinds  that  were  brought  to  him  by  the  agent  he  sent 
down  into  the  diamond-fields. 

Mr.  Fair  is  a  man  who  never  talks  when  he  is  acting,  and  no 
one  knows  exactly  what  "  Uncle  Jimmy,"  as  the  "  boys  "  call  him, 
is  up  to.  You  see  the  hole  by  which  he  goes  into  the  ground,  but 
when  once  he  is  down  out  of  sight  you  never  know  in  what  direct- 
ion he  is  drifting.  Mr.  Fair  is  worth  thirty  or  forty  million 
dollars,  yet  he  spends  as  much  time  in  miners'  garb,  down  in  the 
seething  lower  levels,  and  "poking  about  "  in  all  manner  of  old 
abandoned  drifts,  and  tunnels,  as  though  he  were  working  for 
four  dollars  per  day,  and  had  a  very  hard  and  exacting  "boss." 
He  is  a  shrewd  and  enterprising  business  man,  and  thoroughly 
understands  mines  and  mining.  In  his  mills  he  is  as  much  at 
home  as  in  the  mines,  and  perfectly  understands  the  reduction 
of  silver  ores,  and  all  the  operations  connected  therewith.  He 
is  quite  unassuming,  and  always  has  a  cheerful  word  for  the 
"  boys  "  of  the  lower  levels  when  passing  through  his  mines. 
Like  Mr.  Mackey  he  is  ever  ready  to  give  all  kinds  of  machinery 
a  trial  and  to  adopt  it  if  it  is  found  useful. 

Captain  Samuel  T.  Curtis,  superintendent  of  the  Ophir  mine, 
is  a  miner  of  great  experience  both  in  the  silver-mines  of  Nevada 
and  the  gold-mines  of  California.  He  was  born  in  the  south  of 
Ireland,  but  came  to  the  United  States  when  quite  young, 
settling  in  Western  Virginia,  where  he  lived  many  years.  From 
Virginia  he  went  to  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  where  he  resided  until 
the  discovery  of  gold  in  California. 


CAPTAIN  SAMUEL  CURTIS. 
(Supt.  Ophir  Mine.) 


THE  HON.  J.  P.  JONES.  529 

In  common  with  thousands  of  others  of  an  adventurous  dis- 
position, he  caught  the  gold-fever,  and  in  April  1849  started 
across  the  Plains.  After  many  hardships  and  adventures  of 
all  kinds,  he  landed  at  Lassen's  Ranche,  in  the  northern  part  of 
California,  in  November  of  the  year  named.  His  party  started 
across  the  Plains  with  saw-mills,  and  an  immense  train  of 
wagons  loaded  with  all  manner  of  machinery  and  stores,  but 
abandoned  everything,  and  were  glad  to  reach  California  alive. 
Mr.  Curtis  at  once  made  his  way  to  Feather  River,  where  he 
mined  until  1858  when  he  went  to  Nevada  county  and  engaged 
in  mining  in  that  place.  In  1859  he  was  elected  to  the  Cali- 
fornia Legislature,  and  when  he  went  to  Sacramento  to  take 
his  seat  was  the  first  time  that  he  had  been  out  of  the  mount- 
ains for  ten  years — he  had  seen  no  towns  larger  than  the  mining 
camps  of  the  Sierras. 

At  the  time  of  the  Indian  trouble  in  Washoe,  in  1860,  Mr. 
Curtis  raised  a  company  of  volunteers  in  Sacramento,  and,  as 
captain  of  the  company  so  raised,  brought  over  the  Sierra 
Nevada  Mountains  a  timely  supply  of  arms  and  Ammunition. 
Being  obliged  to  provision  his  company  for  some  time  after 
arriving  in  Nevada,  the  part  he  took  in  the  "  war  "  cost  him 
over  $3000.  It  was  no  better  as  a  speculation  than  bringing 
saw-mills  across  the  Plains.  During  his  residence  in  Washoe,, 
Captain  Curtis  has  had  the  superintendence,  of  the  St.  Louis, 
Empire  Mill  Mining  Company,  Union  Consolidated,  Sierra 
Nevada,  Mexican,  Savage  and  several  other  mines,  and  now  is 
in  charge  of  the  Ophir.  As  a  mining  superintendent  he  has 
always  been  very  fortunate,  and,  from  his  many  years  of  experi- 
ence in  various  mines  along  the  Comstock,  he  knows  almost 
every  foot  of  the  vein.  He  has  given  much  attention  to  the 
stratification  of  the  vein,  and  to  the  crystalization  and  other 
characteristics  of  the  rocks  found  within  its  walls.  So  fortunate 
has  he  been  in  hitting  upon  bonanzas  that  when  he  has  taken 
charge  of  a  mine  the  men  say :  "  If  there  is  anything  in  the 
claim  the  Captain  will  find  it !  "  When  in  charge  of  a  mine  he 
is  indefatigable.  He  is  about  as  much  underground,  and  about 
as  much  at  home  there  as  upon  the  surface. 

The  Hon.  J.  P.  Jones,  United  States  Senator  from  Nevada, 
is  a  man  who  had  much  mining  experience  in  California, 


530  A  BIG  BUSINESS. 


previous  to  his  crossing  the  Sierras  and  taking  up  his  residence 
on  the  Comstock  lode.  He  has  long  had'  control  of  the  Crown 
Point  mine,  at  Gold  Hill,  and  from  its  several  bonanzas  has 
extracted  many  millions  of  dollars.  He  thoroughly  understands 
the  business  of  silver-mining  and  is  an  excellent  judge  of  the 
ores  of  the  Comstock.  He  is  not  only  well  acquainted  with 
that  portion  of  the  great  lode  which  passes  through  Gold  Hill, 
but  also  with  the  mines  on  all  parts  of  the  vein,  He  owns  a 
controlling  interest  in  the  Savage  mine,  in  Virginia  City,  and 
still  retains  the  Crown  Point  mine  which  is  yielding  as  largely 
as  ever,  though  the  ore  extracted  is  less  rich  than  that  which 
was  being  extra^ed  some  years  since. 

The  mills  of 'the  Nevada  Mill  Company,  nine  in  number,  and 
containing  222  stamps,  are  owned  by  Mr.  Jones  and  Hon.  Wm. 
Sharon,  and  are  capable  of  crushing  650  tons  of  ore  per  day. 
The  Rhode  Island  mill,  24  stamps,  belongs  to  the  Crown  Point 
Company.  Besides  his  many  interests  along  the  Comstock 
range,  Mr.  Jones  has  a  large  number  of  mines  and  much  mining 
property  at  Panamint,  has  town-sites  down  on  the  coast  of 
California,  and  is  engaged  in  enterprises  of  various  kinds  in  all 
parts  of  the  Union.  "  No  pent-up  Utica  contracts  his  powers," 
he  has  a  genius  for  mining  and  for  surface  business  of  all 
kinds,  and  when  he  rises  in  his  place  in  the  United  States 
Senate  can  make  a  good  talk — is  about  as  much  at  home  as 
though  among  the  men  on  the  lower  levels  of  one  of  his  mines, 
giving  directions  for  the  opening  of  a  new  stope.  Mr.  Jones 
counts  his  dollars  by  millions.  It  is  said  that  he  has  about  five 
times  as  many  millions  as  he  has  fingers  and  toes. 


HON.  J.  P.  JONES. 


CHAPTER  LXX. 

FUN   AND   FROLIC. 

AS  it  may  be  of  interest  to  persons  who  have  never  been 
in  the  mining-regions  of  the  Pacific  Coast,  I  shall  give 
an  account  of  a  prospecting  trip  which  I  took  in  Washoe, 
in  1860,  just  after  the  Indian  troubles.     Although  no  grand 
discovery  was  made,  a  sketch  of  the  trip  will  serve  to  show 
the  manner  in  which   such   expeditions  were  at  one  time 
conducted. 

I  was  at  that  time  camped  at  Silver  City.  One  day  a  miner 
came  to  my  cabin  in  a  great  state  of  excitement  and  said  he 
had  just  learned  that  some  men  had  struck  placer-diggings  of 
extraordinary  richness  on  El  Dorado  Canon,  a  large  canon  to 
the  southward  of  the  Carson  River.  He  said:  "They  are 
getting  gold  as  large  as  peas,  and  are  making  from  $10  to  $20 
per  man  with  rockers."  A  dozen  or  more  in  the  camp  were 
let  into  the  secret,  and  we  soon  had  several  mules  packed  with 
"  grub  " — flour,  beans,  bacon,  tea,  and  sugar — and  were  ready 
for  a  start.  We  wished  to  reach  the  new  gold-region  in  time 
to  get  good  claims  and  in  advance  of  the  rush  of  prospectors 
that  was  likely  to  occur  as  soon  as  news  of  the  new  strike 
should  leak  out.  Not  a  soul  in  the  camp  knew  where  we 
were  going,  and  as  we  marched  down  Gold  Canon,  the  miners 
pushed  aside  the  blankets  which  were  hung  up  as  doors  to 
their  cabins  and  gazed  in  wonder  upon  our  caravan.  Each 
countenance  said  more  plainly  than  words  could  have  ex- 
pressed it :  "  A  big  strike  has  been  made  somewhere.  Those 
fellows  know  where  it  is  and  are  going  to  it.  •  I  must  find  out 
about  it  and  be  off  after  them ! "  With  a  great  clatter  of  pots, 

533 


534  A  SECRET  EXPEDITION. 

kettles,  gold-pans,  and  frying-pans,  our  mules  trotted  into 
Chinatown  (now  Dayton).  In  this  camp  our  "grand  entry" 
created  something  of  a  sensation,  and  curiosity  was  seen  in 
every  face.  Even  the  unimpressible  Chinamen  gazed  upon 
us  in  almond-eyed  astonishment.  We  were  nearly  all  on  foot 
and  carried  picks  and  shovels  upon  our  shoulders,  and  long 
knives  and  six-shooters  slung  to  our  belts. 

All  who  saw  us  were  dying  to  ask  us  what  was  up;  but, 
evidently  feeling  that  it  was  a  secret  expedition,  no  man  ven- 
tured to  question  us.  Already  we  were  rich,  in  imagination, 
and  all  felt  as  jolly  as  so  many  millionaires  setting  off  on  a 
pleasure  excursion.  Indeed,  miners  generally  make  these 
trips  a  sort  of  pleasure  excursion  and  give  about  as  much 
time  to  deviltry,  and  to  curiously  wandering  about  and  view- 
ing the  wonders  of  the  wilds,  as  they  do  to  the  real  business 
of  the  journey. 

Passing  through  Chinatown,  we  were  soon  at  the  Carson 
River,  where  we  found  trouble  that  we  had  not  thought  of. 
The  river  was  high  and  swift;  nearly  all  of  our  party  were  on 
foot;  the  mules  were  heavily  packed,  and  there  was  but  one 
horse  without  a  load.  This  horse,  however,  was  a  large  and 
powerful  animal.  Tom  Lovel,  his  owner,  finally  rode  across 
the  stream  and  found  that  the  water  just  reached  to  the  horse's 
back.  The  pack-mules  were  driven  across  the  stream  after 
Tom  by  means  of  clubs  and  stones  thrown  after  them.  All 
got  safely  over  but  one  puny  and  unlucky  beast  that  was 
carried  down  the  stream.  The  little  rascal  never  attempted 
to  swim  until  he  had  been  swept  some  distance  down  the 
river,  when  he  turned  his  head  against  the  current  and  pad- 
dled away  like  a  good  fellow,  for  about  ten  minutes,  without 
gaining  or  losing  an  inch,  then  with  a  mournful,  despairing 
groan  he  gave  up  and  floated  ashore  on  the  same  side  from 
which  he  started.  Tom  then  came  back  on  his  horse,  and 
throwing  a  lasso  about  the  neck  of  the  dripping  little  beast, 
towed  him  to  the  other  shore,  despite  his  meanings,  and 
sundry  other  expostulatory  demonstrations.  Next  we  foot- 
men were,  one  at  a  time,  mounted  behind  Tom  and  borne 
across  the  stream,  all  but  myself  landing  in  shape.  I  was 
the  last  to  cross,  and,  on  mounting  the  opposite  shore,  Tom, 


BITTEN  BY  A  SNAKE.  535 

having  overmuch  confidence  in  the  strength  and  activity  of 
his  horse,  insisted  upon  trying  to  ascend  a  perpendicular 
bank.  The  consequence  was  that  we  both  slid  back  upon  the 
horse's  rump,  causing  his  hind  feet  to  sink  into  the  mud  until 
he  assumed  a  perpendicular  position. 

The  next  thing  I  saw  was  that  horse's  head  coming  straight 
into  my  face.  There  was  then  a  dull  splash  and  a  surging 
sound,  and  I  was  at  the  bottom  of  the  Carson  River,  with  Tom 
and  horse  a-top  of  me.  I  did  some  lively  work  for  a  time, 
and  finally  came  to  the  surface  with  my  mouth  full  of  black 
mud.  Tom  got  out  in  some  way  before  I  came  to  the  surface. 
While  I  was  pouring  the  water  out  of  my  boots,  wringing 
out  my  shirt,  and  firing  off  and  reloading  my  revolver,  the 
majority  of  our  party  moved  on,  Tom  allowing  a  friend  to 
ride  his  horse.  Only  Tom,  myself,  and  a  Missourian  known 
as  "  Pike  "  (the  man  who  found  the  "  stuff  compasses  are  made 
of")  remained  behind ;  and  when  we  finally  started  the  others 
were  nearly  a  mile  away.  We  had  not  travelled  half  a  mile 
before  we  came  to  a  bayou  or  slough,  half  as  large  as  the 
river  itself  and  of  which  it  was  a  sort  of  a  cut-off.  Here  we 
halted.  The  "  boys "  had  gone  on  with  the  animals,  and, 
seeing  that  there  was  no  other  way— and  being  about  as  wet 
as  water  could  make  me — I  plunged  in  and  waded  across,  the 
water  coming  almost  to  my  armpits.  Tom  hesitated  and 
hallooed  to  try  to  make  those  in  advance  come  back  with  his 
horse,  but  they  were  beyond  hearing.  Finally  he  offered 
Pike  half  a  dollar  to  carry  him  across  the  slough  on  his  back, 
which  offer  Pike  gladly  accepted.  When  Tom  mounted 
Pike's  back  he  settled  him  down  in  the  mud  nearly  to  his 
knees,  and  when  he  got  out  into  the  stream,  Pike  floundered 
about  alarmingly. 

Tom  drew  up  his  legs  and  wrapped  them  about  Pike's  hips, 
hugging  to  him  as  closely  as  a  young  Indian. 

All  on  a  sudden  Pike  began  to  shout:  "Snake!  snake! 
For  God's  sake,  Tom,  get  off  my  back,  a  snake  is  biting  me 
all  to  pieces ! " 

"  What  in  thunder  do  you  mean  ? "  cried  Tom.  "  Don't  you 
try  foolin'  with  me  about  a  snake !  " 

"  Snake !   snake !  "  cried  Pike,  striving  to  run,  but  Tom 


536  ALL  A  MISTAKE. 


clung  to  him  like  the  Old  Man  of  the  Sea,  thinking  that  he 
was  putting  up  a  job  to  throw  him  into  the  water. 

"  Stop  your  foolin'  or  I'll  hit  you !"  said  Tom. 

But  Pike  still  plunged  furiously,  and  then  began  calling 
upon  Tom  to  put  down  his  legs.  "  Put  down  your  legs,  con- 
found you  !  Don't  you  see  that  you  are  killing  me — that  you 
are  cutting  me  all  to  pieces  with — "  But  Pike  was  not 
allowed  to  finish  the  sentence,  as  Tom,  who  was  by  this  time 
blind  with  rage,  drew  back  his  fist  as  well  as  he  was  able  and 
struck  Pike  in  the  mouth. 

The  unexpected  blow  caused  Pike  to  throw  his  head  back 
so  far  that  both  went  over  backwards  and  disappeared  under 
the  water.  They  came  up  about  four  feet  apart,  and  as  soon 
as  Tom  got  his  hair  out  of  his  eyes  he  made  for  Pike.  The 
latter  was  on  his  guard  and  stepped  aside,  at  the  same  time 
grasping  Tom  and  giving  him  such  a  plunge  as  must  have 
sent  him  to  the  depth  of  a  foot  into  the  mud  at  the  bottom  of 
the  stream.  Pike  then  broke  for  the  shore  with  such  furious 
strides  as  to  nearly  lift  the  waters  from  their  bed.  By  the 
time  Tom  had  reached  shore  Pike  was  at  a  safe  distance,  yet 
when  Tom  began  snapping  his  revolver  at  him  he  danced 
about  at  a  lively  rate. 

"  Hold  on  !  hold  on  ! "'  cried  Pike,  "  stay  where  you  are  ! 
Don't  shoot  till  I  tell  you  about  it!  Blast  it,  don't  you  know 
that  down  in  the  water  thar  you  was  jist  cuttin'  me  all  to 
pieces  with  them  infernal  spurs  of  yours !  " 

Tom  glanced  down  at  his  heels  and  saw  it  all.  There  were 
his  huge  Spanish  spurs,  sharp  as  needles,  and  there  he  had 
been  digging  into  poor  Pike's  flesh  while  riding  him  through 
the  water,  causing  him  to  think  he  was  being  bitten  on  all 
sides  by  water-snakes. 

"  Haw !  haw ! "  laughed  Tom.  "  Why  Pike,  you  fool,  why 
didn't  you  tell  me  that  I  was  hurtin'  you  with  my  spurs  ?  " 

"  I  didn't  know  what  it  was  myself,  at  fust ;  then  when  I  did 
find  out  you  wouldn't  give  me  time  to  say  it." 

After  these  explanations  Tom  and  Pike  shook  hands  and 
called  it  even.  Peace  being  restored,  we  set  forward  along 
the  trail  on  which  our  companions  had  preceded  us,  but  did 
not  overtake  them  until  we  had  reached  the  mouth  of  El 


CAMPING  OUT.  537 


Dorado  Canon,  the  gulch  on  which  we  expected  to  find  the 
diggings.  Up  this  canon  we  travelled  a  considerable  dis- 
tance, when  we  found  our  friends  had  halted  for  dinner. 
Most  of  the  way  we  had  found  the  canon  but  a  few  rods  in 
width  and  walled  in  by  almost  perpendicular  piles  of  granite 
and  slate,  but  where  our  party  had  halted  there  was  a  beau- 
tiful little  valley,  several  springs,  and  two  or  three  small 
groves  of  willows  and  cottonwoods. 

It  does  not  take  long  for  a  party  of  prospectors  to  prepare 
a  meal.  The  mules  are  first  unpacked  and  turned  out  to 
graze;  wood  is  then  collected  and  a  fire  built,  and  by  the 
time  this  is  blazing  several  cooks  are  getting  ready  for  busi- 
ness. Self-rising  flour  is  placed  in  the  same  pans  that  are 
used  in  prospecting  for  gold ;  water  is  then  added,  and  the 
whole  is  then  stirred  up  with  a  spoon  until  of  the  proper 
consistency  for  pancakes.  Soon  two  or  three  men,  each  with 
a  frying-pan,  are  at  work  baking  slapjacks,  while  as  many 
more  are  frying  the  savory  bacon ;  tea  is  being  made  in  a 
coffee-pot,  and  soon  all  is  ready.  Each  man  then  hunts  up 
his  tin  plate,  puts  a  handful  of  earth  upon  it  and  scours  away 
all  traces  of  the  last  meal,  when  he  is  ready  for  his  allowance 
of  bacon  and  slapjacks.  Tin  cups  are  used  for  the  tea. 
These  meals  in  the  wilds  of  the  mountains  are  eaten  with  a 
relish  by  the  hardy  prospector.  There  are  generally  a  few 
raw  onions  to  go  with  the  bacon,  and  when  a  camp  is  made  at 
night  beans  are  cooked. 

Of  nights,  too,  when  there  is  more  time  for  cooking  than 
during  the  noon  halt,  bread  is  baked.  In  making  bread  the 
miner  mixes  it  in  his  prospecting-pan,  as  for  slapjacks,  and 
when  it  has  been  properly  kneaded,  takes  it  between  his  huge 
paws,  and  hammers  it  out  in  the  shape  of  a  large  flat  cake. 
This  cake  he  places  in  his  frying-pan  and  then  stands  it  in 
front  of  his  fire  to"  bake,  turning  it  over  when  one  side  is  done. 

Sometimes  a  regular  loaf  is  made.  When  a  loaf  is  decided 
upon,  a  large  hole  is  dug  in  the  ground,  and  a  fire  made  in  it. 
By  the  time  the  fire  has  burnt  down  and  there  is  nothing  left 
but  a  bed  of  coals,  the  loaf  is  manufactured.  The  coals  are 
raked  out  of  the  pit,  and  the  loaf  is  placed  in  a  gold-pan  and 
set  in  its  bottom.  Another  gold-pan  is  turned  over  that 
30 


538  MANUFACTURE  OF  SLAPJACKS. 

containing  the  loaf,  when  the  whole  is  covered  with  live  coals, 
hot  ashes  and  earth.  In  this  way  is  made  a  loaf  that  is  as  sweet 
as  any  that  ever  came  out  of  the  oven  of  the  baker.  Beans — 
after  they  have  been  boiled  until  soft — are  often  baked  in  the 
same  way,  the  camp-kettle  containing  them  being  buried  in  a 
pit  in  which  a  fire  has  been  made. 

..,  In  making  slapjacks  a  miner  considers  himself  a  green- 
horn if  he  is  not  able  to  turn  them  without  doing  it  with  a 
knife,  after  the  fashion  of  a  woman.  He  shuffles  the  cake 
about  in  the  pan  till  it  is  loosened,  then  deftly  tosses  it  into 


THE    SLAPJACK   FEAT. 


the  air,  catching  it,  batter  side  down,  as  it  descends.  This 
way  of  turning  slapjacks  is  a  trick,  however,  that  some  men 
find  it  impossible  to  learn.  I  once  had  a  partner  whose  one 
dream  of  life  it  was  to  be  able  to  turn  a  slapjack  in  this  way. 
If  he  could  but  flip  a  flapjack  into  the  air  and  catch  it  all 
right,  he  thought  he  would  be  perfectly  happy,  whether  the 
diggings  paid  or  not.  One  day,  while  in  the  cabin  cooking 
slapjacks,  he  announced  that  he  would  turn  one  in  the  air  or 
die.  He  was  a  man  who  weighed  about  one  hundred  and 
eighty  pounds  and  had  somehow  got  it  into  his  head  that  in 
order  to  successfully  perform  the  feat  a  great  outlay  of 
strength  was  required. 


IT  NEVER  CAME  DOWN. 


539 


Taking  hold  of  the  handle  of  the  frying-pan  with  both 
hands  and  getting  out  into  the  middle  of  the  floor,  where  he 
could  have  plenty  of  room,  he  hustled  the  cake  about  in  the 
pan  until  he  found  it  was  loose  on  all  sides.  He  then  squatted 
nearly  to  the  floor,  and,  giving  a  mighty  heave,  sent  the  pan- 
cake flying  upward.  This  done,  he  stood,  frying-pan  in  hand, 
waiting  for  the  cake  to  come  down,  in  order  that  he  might 
catch  it.  But  that  pancake  never  came  down,  it  struck  batter 
side  against  the  ceiling,  and  there  it  stuck  as  fast  as  the  wafer 
on  a  love-letter. 

I  have  heard  of  men  who  were  able  to  throw  a  slap-jack  up 
through  the  chimney,  then  run  outside  of  the  house  and  catch 
it  before  it  struck  the  ground,  but  I  have  never  had  the  good 
fortune  to  see  the  feat  performed.  // 


CHAPTER  LXXI. 

THE   BRIGHT    SIDE    OF    PROSPECTING. 

IN  the  place  where  we  had  encamped  for  dinner  there  was  on 
one  side  of  the  ravine,  and  at  the  height  of  about  fifty  feet 
above  its  bed,  a  long  bench  of  rocks  on  which  were  piled, 
tier  upon  tier,  rocks  that  bore  a  striking  resemblance  to  sacks  of 
grain.     Always  having  the  "evil  one  "  in  their  winds  when  not 
in  the  wilderness,  the  boys  called  this  place  the  "  Devil's  Levee." 
Another  place,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  canon,  where  a  dozen 
or  more  huge,  egg-shaped  boulders,  set  on  end,  stood  nodding 
this  way  and  that,  they  christened  the  "  Granite  Polka. 

Continuing  our  journey  up  the  canon,  we  presently  arrived  at 
the  place  where  the  miners  were  at  work  who  were  reported  to 
be  making  from  $10  to  $20  per  day.  They  seemed  much  sur- 
prised to  see  our  party  and  told  us  that  they  were  making 
nothing.  None  of  us  believed  this,  and,  without  waiting  to 
unpack  their  animals,  two  or  three  of  our  men  rushed  off  up 
the  ravine  to  secure  claims.  I  asked  to  see  the  kind  of  gold 
they  were  getting,  and  was  shown  a  pan  in  which  were  five  or  six 
specks  about  one  fourth  as  large  as  the  head  of  a  pin.  The  man 
who  had  told  me  in  Silver  City,  about  the  big  strike,  and  who 
had  induced  me  to  join  the  expedition,  said  the  men  were 
fooling  us ;  he  was  sure  they  had  rich  diggings.  Taking  the 
pan,  this  man  got  down  into  the  hole  that  had  been  dug  by  the 
miners,  and  got  a  panful  of  the  best-looking  gravel  he  could 
find.  Winking  for  me  to  follow,  he  started  down  the  stream  to 
a  small  pool.  When  we  were  out. of  hearing  he  said  he  thought 
the  men  were  trying  to  "  play  us."  "  They  don't  want  it  known 
that  there  is  anything  here,"  said  he,  "  until  their  friends  are  all 

540 


OFF  FOR  THE  LAND  OF  GOLD.  541 

on  hand  to  gobble  up  the  ground.  You  can  bet  high  that  I'll 
get  a  good  prospect  out  of  this  pan  of  dirt.  It  looks  like  the 
right  stuff." 

Meanwhile  he  was  washing  it  down,  stopping  once  in  a  while 
as  he  neared  the  bottom  to  flit  the  water  over  it  in  the  expecta- 
tion of  seeing  a  "  chispa  "  or  a  "  nugget."  The  less  sand  there 
was  in  the  pan  the  longer  grew  his  face.  At  last  all  was  panned 
out,  even  to  the  last  grain  of  "black  sand,"  and  nought  remained 
but  the  few  little  specks  of  gold  ("  colors  ")  originally  in  the  pan. 

"  Skunked,  by  the  holy  spoons,"  cried  he.  I  then  washed  out 
the  pan  and  filled  it  with  earth  out  of  a  crevice — the  best  I 
could  find — panned  it  down,  and  had  three  small  colors. 

We  then  went  back  to  the  camp  of  the  miners  who  had  dug 
the  prospect-hole  and  asked  how  the  story  got  started  that  they 
had  found  gold  of  the  size  of  peas  and  were  making  from  $10 
to  $20  per  day.  They  knew  nothing  about  it,  but  one  of  them 
finally  recollected  that  when  he  went  to  Silver  City  for  a  rocker 
he  had  said  to  some  one  that  from  the  number  and  shape  of 
the  "  colors "  they  were  finding  on  the  surface  he  did  not 
doubt  they  would  find  them  as  big  as  peas  when  they  reached 
the  bed-rock.  Some  one  then  remarked — '  If  you  do  you'll  be 
able  to  make  from  $10  to  $20  per  day,' — from  this  grew  the 
story  of  the  rich  strike  in  El  Dorado  Canon.  We  all  felt  rather 
"  cheap  "  when  we  heard  this  explanation,  the  perfect  truthful- 
ness of  which  we  could  not  doubt.  I  have  known  many  grand 
mining  excitements  that  had  even  less  foundation.  Even  this 
little  "  sport "  did  not  end  with  our  visit  to  the  canon. 

After  we  had  been  at  home  a  week,  and  when  we  supposed 
it  was  well  understood  that  the  diggings  were  too  poor  to  pay, 
parties  were  still  rushing  thither.  Presently  the  story  crossed 
the  Sierras,  and  the  California  papers  said  that,  "in  the  El 
Dorado  Canon  diggings,  Nevada,  miners  are  making  from  $20 
to  $40  per  day  with  rockers;  and  the  gold  is  of  fine  quality, 
being  worth  $17  per  ounce."  Though  our  ardor  was  a  good 
deal  cooled  by  what  we  had  learned  in  regard  to  the  diggings, 
we  were  not  altogether  discouraged.  The  boys  got  their  picks, 
pans  and  shovels,  and  dividing  into  small  parties,  struck  out  in 
various  directions,  up  and  down  the  canon,  and  among  the 
small  ravines  putting  in  from  the  hills ;  agreeing  that  wherever 


54:2  SOMETHING  IN  HIS  BOOT. 

the  best  prospects  were  found,  claims  should  be  staked  out  for 
all.  At  night  all  hands  returned,  and  nothing  had  been  found 
that  would  pay — a  few  small  colors  was  all  that  could  be  found, 
and  they  could  be  obtained  almost  everywhere.  It  was  some- 
thing like  the  present  Black  Hills  mines.  Lighting  our  camp- 
fire  we  baked  our  slap-jacks,  fried  our  bacon,  and  made  a  glori- 
ous meal,  after  which  pipes  were  lighted,  and  many  stories  told 
of  the  good  old  days  of  "  49,"  when  the  pockets  of  every  honest 
miner  overflowed  with  gold.  When  each  man  had  spun  his 
yarn  it  was  time  to  think  of  sleep,  and  every  man  rolled  himself 
in  his  blankets  and  stretched  himself  in  the  best  and  softest 
spot  he  could  find,  looking  up  at  the  stars  in  the  ceiling  of  his 
bedroom  until  he  fell  asleep.  At  daylight  we  were  astir,  Pike 
was  among  the  first  up.  Tom  did  not  "  unroll  "  till  breakfast 
was  almost  ready.  He  then  crawled  out  and  proceeded  to  pull 
on  his  boots,  taking  a  seat  on  a  pack-saddle. 

About  this  time  I  observed  that  Pike  was  closely  watching 
Tom's  movements.  Tom  had  got  one  boot  on  and  his  toes 
started  in  the  other,  when  he  stopped  and  yawned  lazily. 
Rousing  himself,  he  then  drew  his  boot  on  with  a  "chuck." 
His  foot  had  hardly  struck  bottom  before  he  gave  a  yell  and 
turned  deadly  pale.  Grasping  his  foot  he  tried  to  pull  his  boot 
off,  but  lost  balance  and  rolled  to  the  ground. 

"  Pull  off  my  boot,  quick,  somebody  !  There  is  a  scorpion  in 
it !  "  cried  Tom. 

Pike  managed  to  be  the  first  to  reach  Tom,  and  catching  him 
by  the  ankle  began  tugging  desperately,  dragging  Tom  here  and 
there,  with  nothing  but  the  top  of  his  head  touching  the 
ground. 

"Your  foot  is  swelled,  Tom,  and  this  boot  can't  be  got  off!  'r 
said  Pike. 

"Yes, it  can,"  cried  Tom.  " Pull,  confound  you,  pull!  He 
is  stingin'  me  all  the  time.  Pull,  Pike — confound  you,  pull ! 
He's  stingin'  me  to  death !  " 

Pike  gave  several  desperate  plunges,  lifting  Tom  clear  of  the 
ground  each  time ;  then  stopped. 

"I  tell  yer,  Tom,"  said  he,  "  it  ain't  no  use ;  it'll  never  come 
off,  your  foot  is  swelled  so  bad." 

"  Cut  it  off  then  !  "  roared  Tom,  "  cut  it  off,  I  can't  die  this 
way!" 


AFRAID  OF  TOM.  543 


Pike  drew  his  bowie-knife  and  had  ripped  the  leg  of  Tom's 
boot  half  way  down  when,  thinking  the  joke  had  been  carried 
far  enough — for  I  was  satisfied  Pike  had  been  playing  a  trick 
of  some  kind — I  pushed  Pike  aside,  and  pulled  the  boot  off  at 
once.  When  the  boot  was  off,  behold  !  sticking  to  the  bottom 
of  Tom's  stocking,  a  small  prickly  pear. ' 

On  seeing  the  prickly  pear,  where  there  should  have  been  a 
scorpion,  all  hands  laughed,  and  all  were  pretty  well  satisfied 
that  the  trick  was  Pike's,  as  a  good  deal  of  sport  had  been  made 
of  him  in  regard  to  his  having  been  snake-bitten.  To  the 
surprise  of  all  Tom  neither  raved  nor  swore — said  not  a  word, 
in  fact — but  set  quietly  to  work  at  extracting  the  spines  which 
had  penetrated  his  foot  in  fifty  places.  He  then  examined  his 
boot,  which  was  cut  down  almost  to  the  heel,  drew  it  on  and 
took  his  seat  in  silence  at  the  camp  breakfast.  This  conduct 
on  Tom's  part  gave  Pike  great  uneasiness,  as  all  could  see.  At 
last  he  said : 

"Who  in  thunder  do  you  suppose  put  that  air  cussed  par  in 
your  boot,  Tom  ?  " 

"  I  suppose  you  know  as  much  about  it  as  anyone  here,"  said 
Tom. 

"  Me  !  good  Lord  I  don't  purtend  to  know.  I  can't  account 
for  it  nohow,  without  one  of  them  mountain  rats  might  of  done 
it." 

"  Yes,"  said  Tom,  dryly,  "  mountain  rats  are  mighty  fond  of 
runnin'  about  with  prickly  pears  in  their  mouths,  so  we'll  say 
no  more  about  it." 

Pike  felt  very  uneasy  about  the  matter.  He  didn't  like  the 
way  Tom  was  acting.  After  breakfast,  when  we  were  alone,  he 
asked  me  if  I  didn't  think  Tom  would  watch  his  opportunity 
and  shoot  him.  When  all  had  breakfasted  it  was  concluded  to 
scout  out  and  prospect  at  a  greater  distance  from  camp  than  we 
had  yet  done.  While  some  of  us  prospected  the  ravines  others 
were  to  take  the  animals  and  go  out  into  the  hills  to  look  for 
quartz  ledges.  Pike  wished  to  go  with  the  quartz-hunters,  but 
had  no  animal  to  ride.  To  the  surprise  of  all,  and  almost  to 
the  terror  of  Pike,  Tom  offered  him  his  horse.  Pike  stammered 
his  acceptance  and  turned  away,  looking  very  quiet.  In  passing 
off  it  fell  out  that  Tom  and  myself  were  to  prospect  certain 


544  TOMS  INTENTIONS. 

ravines.  We  dug  a  number  of  holes  down  to  the  bed-rock  and 
washed  and  washed  out  many  pans  of  earth,  but  a  few  small 
colors  was  all  the  gold  we  could  find. 

During  the  day  Tom  said  : 

"  Do  you  know  that  was  a  villainous  trick  that  Pike  played 
me?  To  pretend,  too,  that  he  couldn't  get  my  boot  off,  when 
all  the  time  he  had  hold  about  my  ankle.  Then  to  go  and  cut 
my  boot!  " 

"But  you  told  him  to  do  that." 

"Yes,  I  know  I  did,  for  between  you  and  me,  I  was  awful 
scared.  I  thought  I  was  gone  in  sure.  I'd  have  bet  my  life  on 
there  being  a  scorpion  in  my  boot." 

"  Do  you  know  that  Pike  thinks  you  intend  to  kill  him  ?  " 
said  I. 

"  No.     Is  he  such  a  fool  as  that  ?  " 

"  You  know  men  are  killed  in  this  country  for  more  trifling 
things." 

"  I  don't  want  to  kill  any  man,  but  I  do  want  to  play  even 
on  Pike.  It  was  mean  on  him  to  put  that  thing  into  my  boot 
after  we  had  shook  hands  down  at  the  river." 

After  a  time  Tom  said :  "  Pike  is  a  great  coward  and  I'll 
watch  my  chance  and  scare  the  life  out  of  him  before  this  trip 
is  over." 

"  So  be  it,"  said  I. 

As  we  could  find  no  gold  we  turned  our  attention  to  pros- 
pecting for  the  beauties  of  nature.  In  one  place,  standing  high 
and  dry  at  some  distance  from  the  canon,  we  found  a  very 
handsome  natural  bridge  or  arch.  It  was  about  eighty  feet 
high,  with  a  span  or  opening  thirty  feet  in  width  by  fifty  feet  in 
height,  and  beautifully  set  off  with  turrets  and  spires  which  rose 
from  the  top  of  the  arch.  Near  this  natural  arch  we  found  a 
cave,  but  it  proved  to  be  of  no  great  depth.  From  the  remains 
of  fires  in  it,  it  appeared  to  have  been  used  by  the  Indians  as  a 
place  of  shelter. 

After  wandering  about  in  the  hills  for  some  hours  we  started 
for  camp,  and  as  we  neared  it  saw  a  great  bustle  there  among 
the  men.  They  had  brought  in  all  of  the  animals  and  were 
busily  engaged  in  packing  up.  As  soon  as  they  saw  us  approach- 
ing they  called  to  us  to  make  haste.  Pike  came  running  towards 


PIKE  OUTWITTED.  545 

us,  and  laying  his  hand  alongside  of  his  mouth,  sang  out  in  a 
hoarse  whisper :  "  Injuns !  " 

"  Injuns  ?  "  said  we. 

"  Yes,"  said  Pike,  "  Injuns !  Hills  full  of  'em !  Hurry  up, 
we're  goin'  to  light  out  o'  here  !  " 

The  long  and  short  of  the  story  was  that  Pike  and  his  partner 
had  crossed  the  mountain  into  what  was  called  Sullivan  district, 
when  they  found  all  the  miners  packing  up  and  leaving  for 
Carson  City,  on  account  of  Indians  having  been  seen  watch- 
ing them  from  the  rocks.  One  of  our  boys  who  was  lying  in 
the  shade  of  a  bushy  cedar,  with  his  boots  off,  cooling  his  feet, 
had  also  seen  Indians  and  had  rushed  into  camp.  His  story 
was  that,  as  he  was  lying  under  the  tree,  eleven  Indians,  all  in 
war-paint,  and  each  armed  with  a  minie  musket  and  revolver, 
passed  along  a  trail  about  five  rods  away.  They  were  in  single 
file  and  were  going  eastward  at  a  dog-trot.  Thus  were  the 
Indians  running  one  way  and  the  whites  another — the  opposite 
direction.  On  reaching  camp  we  tried  to  prevent  this  stampede, 
telling  the  men  that  the  Indians  seen  were  merely  a  scouting 
party,  and  were  probably  then  many  miles  away  in  the  direction 
of  Pyramid  Lake,  but  several  said  they  would  bet  any  money 
that  the  redskins  were  even  then  watching  us  from  the  tops  of 
some  of  the  surrounding  rocky  hills.  They  could  see  rocks 
on  the  hills  that  looked  like  the  heads  of  Indians,  and  by  watch- 
ing these  some  said  they  could  see  them  move. 

The  miners  whom  we  found  on  the  canon  had  pulled  up  stakes 
and  left  on  the  first  alarm.  After  much  talk,  a  majority  of  our 
party  declared  in  favor  of  remaining  on  the  canon  another  day, 
but  the  minority  owned  the  mules,  and  swore  they  were  going  to 
leave  at  once.  They  said  they  did  not  imagine  the  Indians 
would  attack  us,  but  they  were  tired  of  prospecting  and  were 
going  down  to  Carson  River  to  fish.  Pike  was  very  anxious  to 
try  his  luck  at  fishing,  and  was  ready  to  start  at  once  for  China- 
town to  buy  hooks  and  lines,  if  anyone  would  furnish  him  a 
horse. 

After  much  talk,  Tom  came  to  me,  and  said :  "  Let  us  go 
down  the  canon  a  few  miles  with  these  fellows,  and  then  make 
them  camp,  where  we  can  have  a  night-attack  by  the  Indians, 
and  scare  Pike  out  of  his  wits."  This  was  agreed  to,  and  off  we 


546  ^LEFT  BEHIND. 


all  started.  About  sundown  we  reached  an  open,  grassy  spot 
calling  a  halt  proposed  to  camp  there.  The  minority  would  not 
hear  of  such  a  thing.  Pike  was  the  most  determined  of  any, 
and  was  bound  to  go  to  the  river.  The  joke  of  the  night-attack 
had  been  whispered  among  our  men,  and  they  determined  to 
keep  Pike  with  us.  One  of  them  took  him  aside  and  told  him 
that  we  had  reason  to  believe  that  the  Indians  were  lower 
down  the  canon;  that,  in  fact,  they  were  lying  in  wait  for  us  in 
the  rocky  hills  about  its  mouth,  and  that  all  who  went  down 
that  night  would  be  killed. 

"  Good  Lord  !  "  cried  Pike,  "  you  don't  say  so.  Well,  if  that's 
the  case  I'll  be  dogoned  if  you  ketch  me  goin'  down  thataway !  " 
But  Pike  presently  had  a  doubt  about  this  plan.  Said  he :  "  If 
we  stop  here  won't  the  cussed  Injuns  get  tired  of  waitin'  and 
come  up  here  after  us  ?  " 

"Well,"  said  our  man,  "but  you  see  we'll  let  these  fellows  go 
that  want  to  go  so  bad,  and  when  the  Injuns  git  them  they'll 
think  they've  got  us  all  and  so  will  be  satisfied.  However,  it  is 
almost  too  bad  to  let  them  go  down  there  and  be  killed.  I 
guess  I'll  go  and  tell  them  where  the  Injuns  are." 

"  No,  no  !  "  cried  Pike,  "  what  are  you  about.  If  you  tell 
them  and  stop  them  from  goin'  down,  thar  won't  be  no  place 
safe !  Don't  talk  so  loud  or  they  may  take  the  hint  and  not  go." 

"  Come,  Pike,"  called  the  fellows  who  were  so  anxious  to  go 
fishing,  "  if  you  intend  to  go  with  us,  hurry  up,  or  we'll  leave 
you !  " 

"  Leave  me  and  be  dogoned  to  you  !  "  cried  Pike.  "  I've  got 
a  pistol  now  (a  lie)  and  I'm  goin'  to  stay  here  and  have  some 
fun  a  fightin'  Injuns  'fore  mornin'.  Go  along  with  you.  I'm 
all  right  now !  " 

Pike's  friend  were  evidently  amazed  at  this  sudden  exhibition 
of  courage  on  his  part.  They  whispered  together  for  a  time ; 
then  one  of  them  said  :  "  Gentlemen  you  may  think  that  you 
are  exhibiting  bravery ;  but,  gentlemen,  it  is  not  bravery,  it  is 
madness."  This  earnest  speech  was  greeted  with  a  laugh  from 
our  side  of  the  house,  and  the  "  fishermen  "  turned  the  mules 
into  the  trail  and  were  soon  out  of  sight. 


CHAPTER  LXXII. 

THE    COMICAL    STORY   OF    PIKE. 

AS  SOON  as  we  were  left  to  ourselves  we  built  a  roaring 
fire,  in  spite  of  all  Pike's  remonstrances.    "It's  jist  as 
good  a  thing  as  the  Injuns  want/'  said  he.    "  It's  jist 
showin'  'em  whar  we  are.     We'll   all  lose  our  skelps  afore 
mornin'." 

When  we  began  to  think  of  supper,  we  found  that  we  had 
played  a  little  joke  on  ourselves,  in  our  hurry  to  get  the  other 
fellows  away  in  order  to  make  sure  of  Pike.  We  had  nothing 
in  the  shape  of  provision  except  a  few  pounds  of  rice,  which 
happened  to  be  on  Tom's  horse.  We  put  some  of  this  into  a 
gold-pan  and  boiled  it,  but  it  was  rather  poor  eating  without 
either  butter  or  salt.  As  we  were  sitting  about  the  pan 
scooping  up  this  rice  with  knives  and  wooden  paddles,  Pike 
said :  "  I  allers  knowed  I  didn't  like  rice  as  well  as  I  thought 
I  did,  and  now  I'm  sure  of  it."  But  we  had  plenty  of  tobacco 
and  what  we  lacked  in  "grub"  we  made  up  in  smoke.  As 
soon  as  it  grew  dark  Pike  became  very  restless. 

"  What  was  that  ? "  he  would  say.  "  Did  you  hear  the  rocks 
rattle  upon  the  hillside  ? "  and  he  would  peer  out  into  the 
darkness. 

Tom  now  began  to  sing  as  loud  as  he  could  roar : 
"  My  name  it  is  Joe  Bowers,  I've  got  a  brother  Ike, 
I  come  from  old  Missouri,  yes,  all  the  way  from  Pike." 

"  Stop  singin'  so  loud,  Tom,"  cried  Pike  in  alarm.    "  Don't ! " 

But  Tom  roared  the  louder — 

"  I'll  tell  you  why  I  left  thar,  and  how  I  came  to  roam, 
And  leave  my  poor  old  mammy,  so  far  away  from  home." 

547 


548  TOM  SINGS. 


"  Tom  !  Tom !     Good  Lord  don't !  "  begged  Pike. 
"  I  used  to  love  a  gal  thar,  they  called  her  Sally  Black, 
I  axed  her  for  to  marry  me,  she  said  it  was  a  whack, 
But  says  she  to  me  :     *  Joe  Bowers,  before  we  hitch  for  life, 
j      You'd  orter  have  a  little  home,  to  keep  your  little  wife.' " 

"  If  you've  got  a  little  home,  Tom,"  said  Pike,  "  I  wish  to 
God  you  was  now  in  it ! " 

"  Says  I,  '  my  dearest  Sally,  Oh  !  Sally  for  your  sake, 
I'll  go  to  Californy,  and  try  to  raise  a  stake." 

"That  thar's  a  fool  song,"  said  Pike,  "and  nobody  but  a 
fool  would  sing  it!  " 

"  But  one  day  I  got  a  letter,  from  my  dear  brother  Ike, 
41  It  came  from  old  Missouri,  sent  all  the  way  from  Pike." 

"Whar  I  wish  to  the  Lord  I  was  now!"  groaned  Pike. 
"  It  brought  the  goldarndedst  news  that  ever  you  did  hear, 
My  heart  is  almost  bustin',  so  pray  excuse  this  tear, 
It  said  my  Sal  was  fickle,  that  her  love  for  me  had  fled, 
That  she'd  married  with  a  butcher,  whose  har  was  orful  red." 

"Thar'll  be  butchers  here  'fore  long,"  groaned  Pike. 
"  It  told  me  more  than  that,  Oh  !  it's  enough  to  make  one  swear ! 
It  said  Sally  had  a  baby,  and  the  baby  had  red  hair." 

"Now,  cuss  yer  pictur !  "  said  Pike,  "yer  done,  air  yer? 
I'll  bet  thar'll  be  red  har  enough  here  before  mornin*.  Your 
singin'  has  played  thunder  with  us,  sure  as  thar's  wool  on  a 
nigger,  but  you'll  not  have  a  bit  on  the — " 

"  Top  of  his  head,  where  the  wool  had  orter  be,"  roared  Tom. 

Pike  was  now  at  his  wits'  end,  and  went  off  a  rod  or  two 
from  the  fire  and  sat  down  by  a  dark  clump  ot  bushes,  sullen 
and  thoroughly  disgusted.  Tom  called  out  to  him :  "  Say, 
Pike,  are  you  loadin'  that  revolver  o'  your'n  ? "  but  Pike 
had  the  sulks  and  would  not  condescend  to  answer.  It  was 
soon  time  to  "  turn  in  "  for  the  night,  and  each  man  took  his 
blankets  and  sought  the  smoothest  place  to  be  found.  Pike 
and  one  of  our  party  known  as  "  Hank,"  spread  their  blankets 
together  at  some  distance  from  the  fire,  which  was  now  quite 
low,  while  the  rest  of  us  found  places  for  our  beds  among 
some  willows. 

Pike  lay  awake  a  long  time  listening  for  Indians,  and  would 
rise  to  his  knees  at  the  slightest  sound,  pulling  the  blankets 


THE  JOKE  SUCCESSFUL.  551 

off  "Hank,  who  was  trying  to  make  him  lie  still,  so  that  he 
could  get  to  sleep.  There  was  a  high  hill  on  the  east  side  of 
the  canon,  covered  on  the  side  next  to  us  with  shelly  slate 
rock,  and  whenever  a  fox,  coyote,  or  even  a  rat  ran  over  this 
it  caused  a  great  clatter,  the  scales  of  slate  ringing  like  pieces 
of  pottery.  This  was  a  place  fruitful  of  alarms  and  caused 
Pike  to  be  upon  his  knees  about  every  five  minutes,  but 
about  midnight  he  could  keep  his  eyes  open  no  longer. 
Hank  made  the  signal  agreed  upon,  by  holding  up  his  hat, 
when  two  of  the  boys  crept  cautiously  out  of  the  camp  with 
six-shooters  in  their  hands.  By  following  up  a  little  ravine 
they  were  able  to  gain  the  summit  of  the  slaty  hill  without 
making  the  slightest  noise,  as  there  was  no  loose  rock  except 
on  the  slope.  Presently  they  started  down  the  slope  through 
the  loose  rock,  leaping  and  making  as  much  noise  as  though 
old  Winnemucca  and  half  the  Piute  tribe  were  coming  down 
the  mountain.  At  the  same  time  they  began  yelling  and 
firing  their  revolvers.  At  the  first  racket  made  on  the  hill 
Pike  was  on  his  feet  and  came  running  toward  us,  who  were 
returning  the  fire  of  the  supposed  Indians,  and  yelling  as  we 
fired,  making  altogether  enough  noise  for  half  a  dozen  small 
battles.  When  Pike  reached  us  two  or  three  of  our  men  fell, 
crying  out  that  they  were  killed,  and  at  the  same  time  Hank 
fell  and  caught  him  about  the  legs,  crying:  "  I'm  wounded. 
Carry  me  off  and  hide  me  in  the  bushes  !  " 
"Let  go  of  me,  Hank,  there's  five  hundred  of  'em  comin' !  " 
"  I'll  never  let  go  of  you,"  said  Hank.  "  Carry  me  off!  " 
Pike  then  lifted  Hank  who  was  groaning  at  a  terrible  rate, 
and  carrying  him  about  two  rods,  pitched  him,  neck  and  heels, 
into  a  clump  of  thorny  bushes.  This  done,  Pike  rushed  down 
the  canon  at  the  speed  of  an  antelope.  Tom  rolled  on  the 
ground  and  laughed  until  he  almost  smothered  himself. 
"I'm  even  with  Pike  on  the  prickly-pear  business!  "  cried  he, 
as  soon  as  he  was  able  to  speak,  "  he  shall  never  hear  the 
last  of  this  Injun  fight !  "  For  my  part,  now  that  the  fun  was 
all  over,  I  began  to  feel  quite  miserable  over  the  whole  affair. 
I  feared  that  in  his  great  fright  Pike  might  dash  his  brains 
out  against  a  tree  or  break  his  neck  among  the  rocks.  I 
firmly  resolved  never  to  take  part  in  another  affair  of  the 


552  -       PIKE  VANISHES. 


kind,  calling  to  mind  several  sham  fights  and  other  deviltry 
in  California  that  had  been  attended  by  fatal  results  to  the 
victims. 

In  the  morning  we  were  ready  for  a  start  at  sunrise.  The 
first  thing  I  saw  was  Pike's  hat,  lying  near  the  place  where 
he  had  spread  his  blankets  the  night  before.  The  sight  gave 
me  quite  a  shock,  as  it  seemed  to  be  the  hat  of  a  dead  man. 
I  soon  found  that  the  others  were  beginning  to  feel  much  as 
I  did  about  the  matter,  for,  as  Pike's  blankets  were  being 
rolled  up  to  be  packed  on  Tom's  horse,  one  of  the  boys  said : 
"  I  hope  nothing  has  happened  to  Pike."  Another  said :  "  O, 
he's  all  right !  "  but  at  the  same  time  it  was  easy  to  see  that 
the  speaker  feared  that  he  was  not  "all  right." 

As  we  passed  down  the  canon,  I  could  not  help  thinking 
that  we  should  presently  find  Pike  lying  wounded  or  already 
dead  in  some  rocky  pit  or  pile  of  boulders  near  the  trail,  and 
most  of  our  party  looked  quite  solemn.  The  man  who  carried 
Pike's  hat  looked  as  though  he  were  in  a  funeral  procession, 
carrying  a  portion  of  the  corpse.  At  length  we  were  through 
the  canon,  and  having  reached  the  level  plain  without  finding 
Pike's  remains,  we  all  felt  quite  jolly  again  and  immediately 
set  to  work  and  planned  another  surprise  for  him,  when  we 
should  find  him.  Instead  of  fording  the  river,  as  we  had  done 
in  going  out,  we  went  some  two  miles  further  down  and 
crossed  at  a  ferry.  We  inquired  of  the  colored  man  in  charge 
if  anyone  had  crossed  during  the  night.  He  assured  us  that 
no  one  had  crossed,  as  he  found  the  boat  tied  up  on  the  west 
bank,  as  he  had  left  it  the  evening  before. 

We  now  knew  that  Pike  must  have  crossed  at  the  ford  and 
again  began  to  feel  uneasy,  fearing  that  reaching  the  river 
in  a  state  of  exhaustion,  he  had  plunged  in  and  had  been 
swept  under  by  the  current.  One  of  two  things  was  certain  : 
he  was  either  safe  across,  or  was  drowned,  as  the  Mississippi 
itself  would  not  have  stayed  his  flight.  On  turning  into  the 
main  street  of  Chinatown  we  came  suddenly  upon  a  group 
of  men  with  minie  muskets  in  their  hands  and  in  their  midst 
stood  Pike,  with  a  handkerchief  tied  about  his  head.  He 
had  a  musket  in  his  hand  and  was  the  centre  of  attraction. 
We  could  see  that  he  was  telling  those  about  him  of  the 


A  PRETTY  BIG  STORY.  553 

dreadful  affair  of  the  previous  night.  All  those  surrounding 
him  were  listening  so  intently  that  we  approached  without 
being  observed.  Pike  was  just  saying :  "  Yes;  Hank  may  be 
alive.  I  carried  him  about  two  miles  on  my  back,  with  the 
red  cusses  yellin'  at  my  heels,  then  laid  him  down  and  kiv- 
ered  him  up  with  brush.  But  all  the  rest—"  Here  Pike 
turned  and  saw  our  party.  His  jaw  dropped,  and  his  eyes 
almost  started  from  their  sockets. 

"  Well,  what  of  the  rest  ?  "  said  one  of  his  auditors. 

"Why,  my  God!  they  are  all  here!"  said  Pike.  "There 
they  all  stand !  " 

The  crowd  now  turned  to  us,  and  began  to  ask :  "  Who 
was  killed  ?  "  "  Were  there  many  Indians  ?  "  and  many  other 
like  questions.  Not  a  word  of  this,  however,  could  we  be 
made  to  understand.  We  had  seen  no  Indians;  we  had  never 
dreamed  of  any  danger  from  Indians.  The  whole  crowd  at 
once  turned  to  Pike  for  an  explanation.  Some  of  the  men 
hinted  that  unless  he  gave  a  pretty  satisfactory  explanation  of 
his  strange  stories  he  would  get  into  trouble.  Pike  was 
thunderstruck  and  gazed  at  us  with  a  look  of  utter  helpless- 
ness. At  last  he  stammered:  "Tom,  wasn't  you  killed?  " 

"  If  I  was  killed  I  wouldn't  be  here,  would  I?  " 

"  I  thought  I  saw  you  fall,"  and  Pike's  face  wore  the  most, 
puzzled  look  imaginable.  His  fingers  sought  the  yellowish 
tuft  of  hair  on  his  chin  and  gazing  at  one  and  another  of  us 
he  sighed:  "  I  don't  understand  it  all." 

"  We  none  of  us  understand  it,"  said  one  of  the  crowd, 
sneeringly. 

"  All  here — all  here !  "  said  Pike,  his  countenance  wearing 
the  look  of  an  insane  person. 

"Pike,"  said  I,  "you  must  have  dreamt  all  this  about 
Indians." 

Pike's  face  brightened  for  a  moment,  but  soon  resumed  its 
old  look  of  despair.  "  No,  no,"  said  he,  "  no  dream.  I  saw 
them  all  killed." 

"  But,  Pike,  look  at  us  ;  we  are  all  here — all  alive  and  well !  " 

Pike  looked  vacantly  about  him  at  the  boys,  and  said: 
*  Yes,  I  know,  but  I  don't  understand  it  at  all." 

"Well,"  said  I,  "all  there  is  about  it  is  that  you  were 


554:  DOUBTFUL  DREAMS. 

dreaming  and  suddenly  rose  up  shouting  'Injuns!  Injuns!  ' 
and  before  we  could  stop  you,  you  ran  away  down  the  canon." 

"  Yes,"  said  Pike,  "  it  must  have  been  a  dream.  You  are 
all  here — it  must  have  been  a  dream.  But  it  don't  seem  that 
way  at  all." 

"Don't  seem  what  way?  " 

"Why,  the  way  you  tell  it." 

"  Well,  how  does  it  seem.  Let  us  hear  you  tell  it.  Let  us 
have  your  dream." 

"  Give  us  the  dream !  "  Let's  have  yer  dream ! "  cried  the 
crowd. 

"  Well,  you  see  I  was  a  layin'  thar  in  my  blankets — But  I'll 
be  dogoned  ef  I  believe  I  did  dream  it ! "  cried  Pike.  "  I 
can  almost  hear  the  guns  crack  now! " 

"Of  course  you  dreamt  it.     Ain't  we  all  here?  " 

"Yes;  I  know.     But  how  did  I  act — what  did  I  do?" 

"  Why,  I've  just  told  you  all  you  did.  You  know  that  after 
you  went  to  bed  you  was  bouncing  up  on  your  knees  every 
five  minutes,  and  at  last  you  bounced  up  and  took  to  your 
heels." 

"Yes;  I  know  I  was  a  little  oneasy  like.  I  kept  a-hearin' 
somethin'  rattle  up  on  that  hill,  so  I  kinder  kept  on  my  guard 
like." 

"  Well,  let  us  have  the  dream,"  all  again  cried. 

"  Well,"  began  Pike,  "  at  first  I  was  a-dreamin'  along  kinder 
nice  and  easy  like,  when  all  at  once  I  heard  the  rocks  clatter 
— I  mean  I  thonght  I  heard  'em  clatter.  Then  bang,  bang! 
pop,  pop!  went  the  guns,  and  O!  sich  yells — sich  yells!  I 
thought  my  hair  riz  straight  on  end,  and  I  seed  more'n  five 
hundred  Injuns,  all  a-hoppin'  down  the  hill  like  turkeys.  All 
this  time  1  thought  that  you  fellers  was  a  blazin'  away  at 
about  two  hundred  of  'em  that  was  all  round  you,  and  about 
five  hundred  on  the  hill.  Then  I  thought  I  grabbed  up  a 
pick  and  went  right  inter  the  thick  of  the  cusses  and  fit  and  fit 
till  I'd  wore  out  the  pick,  and  then  fit  a  long  time  with  the 
handle.  By  this  time  I  thought  you  fellers  was  all  killed  and 
I  thought  I'd  git  up  and  dust.  But  jist  then  I  thought  that 
Hank  got  holt  round  my  legs  and  said  he  was  wounded,  and 
wouldn't  let  go  of  me  'thout  I'd  carry  him  off.  I  thought  I 


SELF-DECEIVED.  555 


tuck  him  on  my  back  and  carried  him  'bout  four  miles,  and 
hid  him  in  some  brush.  Then  I  thought  I  run  on  and  waded 
across  the  river — " 

"No,  no!  you  didn't  dream  that!  You  did  actually  wade 
across  the  river." 

"  Well,  then  what  part  of  it  did  I  dream  ?  Can  anybody 
tell  me  that?"  and  poor  Pike  looked  more  puzzled  than  ever. 

"  You  must  have  waded  the  river,  you  know,  or  you  would 
not  be  here." 

"Well,  yes;  I  s'pose  I  did,  but  that  don't  seem  a  bit  plainer,, 
nor  hardly  half  as  plain  as  the  shootin'  and  yellin'  part- 
That  was  the  dogonest  plainest  dream  I  ever  did  hev  !  " 

"Yet,  as  we  are  all  here,  alive  and  well ;  it  must  have  been 
a  dream?  " 

"  Oh,  yes,  it  was  a  dream,  sartain  and  sure,  but  what  gits 
me  was  its  bein'  so  astonishin'  plain — jist  the  same  as  bein* 
wide  awake ! " 

Pike  continued  to  tell  his  dream  for  some  years,  constantly 
adding  new  matter,  till  at  last  it  was  a  wonderful  yarn.  He 
enlarged  greatly  on  the  part  he  took  in  the  fight,  and  after 
wearing  out  the  pick  on  the  skulls  of  the  Indians,  wound  up 
by  thrustirfg  the  handle  down  the  throat  of  a  brave,  as  his  last 
act  before  beating  a  retreat.  Tom  more  than  once  told  him 
the  truth  about  the  whole  affair,  bringing  in  half  a  dozen  of 
the  "boys"  to  corroborate  what  he  said,  but  not  a  word  of  it 
would  Pike  believe. 

"  Do  you  think,"  he  would  say,  "  that  I  was  fool  enough  to 
believe  that  sich  things  actually  happened?  No,  it  was  all 
a  dream  from  fust  to  last,  and  the  biggest  and  plainest  dream 
I  ever  had ! " 

The  account  I  have  given  of  our  prospecting  trip  is  a  fair 
sample  of  all  such  expeditions — though  this  trip  "  panned 
out"  rather  more  than  the  usual  amount  of  deviltry.  Parties 
of  men  frequently  travel  two  or  three  hundred  miles  to  pros- 
pect a  certain  region,  and  when  they  reach  it,  merely  scratch 
about  on  the  surface  for  a  day  or  two  and  if  nothing  is  then 
found  they  curse  the  place  and  strike  out  for  some  other 
section,  when  the  same  surface  scratching  is  repeated.  With 
prospectors  the  "big  thing  "is  always  just  ahead,  never  in 
31 


556  OUR  JO URNE  VS  END. 

the  place  where  they  are.  Of  course  good  miners  are  fre- 
quently found,  but  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  a  prospecting  trip 
results  about  as  did  the  little  scout  given  above. 

When  we  were  prospecting  there  were  things  worth  looking 
after,  but  we  did  not  pay  any  attention  to  them.  We  saw  in 
the  canon  abundant  indications  of  coal,  but  we  were  looking 
for  gold  alone.  The  coal,  the  croppings  of  which  we  saw,  is 
now  being  extracted  by  a  company  and  their  mine  is  one  of 
great  value.  Near  where  we  camped  while  prospecting  in  the 
canon  now  stand  the  steam-hoisting  works  of  the  coal  com- 
pany. It  may  look  as  though  we  did  very  little  work  for  a 
prospecting  party,  but  I  have  known  a  party  of  men  to  travel 
three  hundred  miles  without  having  washed  a  pan  of  dirt;  half 
the  time  they  did  not  even  dismount  from  their  horses  when 
looking  at  mining  ground.  Large  parties  do  less  work  than 
small  ones,  as  they  can  never  agree  in  regard  to  where  they 
are  to  set  in  or  what  is  to  be  done.'  If  one  or  two  men  wish 
to  stop  and  prospect,  the  others  are  pretty  sure  to  say :  "  Con- 
found the  place !  there  is  nothing  there.  I  know  by  the  looks 
of  the  ground  that  it  is  of  no  account,"  and  so  the  whole  party 
moves  on,  and  a  good  place  in  which  to  set  to  work  is  never 
found.  » 

A  majority  of  those  who  go  on  prospecting  expeditions  do 
not  want  to  find  a  place  where  there  is  going  to  be  much  hard 
work  to  be  done.  They  prefer  rambling  through  the  country 
and  viewing  new  and  curious  sights  to  sinking  shafts  and 
running  tunnels.  If  they  can't  find  gold  or  silver  in  rock 
that  shows  itself  on  the  surface,  they  continue  to  travel.  The 
novelty  of  delving  in  the  earth  for  the  precious  metals  has 
long  since  passed  away  in  the  case  of  the  old  miner  or  pros- 
pector. New-comers — known  as  "  pilgrims  "  or  "  greenhorns  " 
— are  much  more  likely  to  do  real  work  when  on  a  pros- 
pecting trip  than  any  of  the  old  miners.  In  the  case  of  the 
pilgrim  there  is  a  fascination  in  the  bare  fact  that  he  is 
digging  for  silver  or  gold  which  drives  him  on  and  lends 
strength  to  his  muscle. 


THE  GREAT  FIRE. 

[OCTOBER,  1875.] 

MANY  large  fires  have  at  various  times  swept  through 
Virginia  City,  but  the  greatest  and  most  destructive 
that  ever  occurred  in  the  town  was  that  of  October  26, 
1875.  At  6  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  that  day  a  fire  started  in 
a  little  wooden  lodging-house  on  A  street,  in  the  western  part  of 
the  town,  which  in  a  few  hours  destroyed  all  the  buildings  stand- 
ing on  an  area  of  ground  half  a  mile  square,  in  the  heart  of  the 
city.  Most  of  the  public  buildings  and  the  hoisting-works,  and 
many  other  buildings  of  the  bonanza  mines,  were  burned.  In 
all,  property  to  the  value  of  over  $10,000,000  was  swept  away. 
About  two  thousand  buildings  were  reduced  to  ruins,  and  hun- 
dreds of  persons  left  homeless  and  destitute. 

The  fire  started  at  an  hour  when  few  persons  were  abroad. 
Only  the  butchers,  bakers,  marketmen,  and  other  early  risers 
were  astir.  The  "  owls  "  of  the  city,  birds  of  prey  that  haunt 
the  place  all  night,  had  disappeared  with  the  grey  of  dawn  and 
were  in  their  first  deep  sleep ;  the  time  was  an  hour  too  early  for 
the  change  of  shifts  in  the  mines,  therefore  at  no  other  time,  day 
or  night,  could  the  streets  have  been  found  more  completely 
deserted. 

When  the  first  fire-bells  rang  few  persons  heeded,  even  though 
they  heard  them.  Soon,  however,  the  mournful  and  long-drawn 
wail  of  one  steam-whistle  after  another,  in  quick  succession,  was 
heard  to  join  in  sounding  the  alarm  till  the  fierce  clangor  of  the 
bells  was  almost  drowned.  The  bells,  loudly  as  they  rang,  only 
said :  "  There  is  a  fire,"  but  in  the  fierce,  wild  shriek  of  the 
whistles  there  was  that  which  thrilled  all,  and  which  said  as 

557 


558  THE  GREAT  FIRE. 


though  with  a  human  voice:  "There  is  a  fire/and  a  great  and 
most  dangerous  one !  "  In  the  sounding  of  the  whistles  it  was 
to  be  noted  that  there  was  no  hesitation  or  timidity  anywhere 
shown ;  each  engineer  pulled  open  the  valve  of  his  whistle  to 
its  full  extent,  at  the  first  grasp  of  his  hand. 

The  fire  started  in  the  midst  of  scores  of  wooden  buildings, 
and  seemed  to  dart  above  all  the  surrounding  roofs  at  the  first 
bound.  In  addition  to  their  being  constructed  of  wood,  nearly 
the  wh61e  of  the  buildings  in  the  neighborhood  were  lined  with 
cotton  cloth,  on  which  was  pasted  paper,  as  on  a  plastered  wall. 
The  partitions  dividing  the  room,  and  the  ceilings  of  all  the 
rooms,  were  also  constructed  of  muslin  and  wall-paper.  Hardly 
a  drop  of  rain  had  fallen  during  the  preceding  summer  months, 
and  the  whole  town  was  as  inflammable  as  scorched  flax. 

Almost  instantly  the  column  of  fire  that  was  at  first  seen  to 
arise  began  to  assume  the  form  of  a  pyramid.  The  base  of  this 
pyramid  rapidly  extended  into  the  sides-  of  houses  in  all  direct- 
ions— the  glass  falling  in  showers  from  the  windows  to  give 
ingress  to  the  flames — and  structure  after  structure  burst  out  in 
sheets  of  fire  more  rapidly  than  could  be  counted  or  noted 
down.  Shouts  of  men  and  womeri  rang  through  the  halls  of  all 
the  large  hotels  and  lodging-houses  in  the  neighborhood,  and 
loud  rappings,  to  arouse  the  sleepers,  were  heard  at  the  doors  of 
rooms.  Nearer  the  scene  of  the  fire,  persons  of  all  ages,  both 
sexes,  and  every  condition  were  fleeing  for  their  lives  in  all 
stages  of  dress  and  all  manner  of  undress.  Many  of  those 
nearest  the  building  in  which  the  fire  broke  out  had  only  time  to 
leap  from  their  beds  and  rush  into  the  streets,  as  their  houses 
were  wrapped  in  fire  before  they  were  aware  of  their  danger. 

At  the  time  the  fire  burst  forth  a  fierce  gale  was  blowing  from 
the  west.  This  carried  great  sheets  of  wall-paper,  blazing 
shingles,  and  a  great  shower  of  fiery  missiles  of  all  kinds  high 
into  the  air  and  far  to  the  eastward,  kindling  fresh  fires  in 
advance  of  the  main  roaring  mass  of  flame.  The  main  body  of 
the  fire  streamed  before  the  gale  as  fierce  as  the  flame  from  a 
blow-pipe.  It  stopped  for  nothing.  It  was  seen  resting  against 
the  side  of  a  stone  or  brick  building  for  a  minute,  then  black 
smoke  began  to  roll  up  through  the  roof,  and  a  moment  after  the 
smoke  became  flame — flame  that  joined  the  main  stream  and 
darted  on  and  through  all  that  stood  in  its  way. 


THE  GREAT  FIRE.  559 


Many  of  the  buildings  destroyed  were  such  as  had  always 
been  thought  fire-proof;  but  they  fell  before  the  fire  as  quickly 
as  though  they  had  been  the  commonest  of  wooden  structures. 
There  was  apparently  much  fire  in  the  midst  of  the  streets  as 
within  the  buildings;  indeed  the  whole  air  seemed  on  fire. 
Water  thrown  into  the  midst  of  the  flames  produced  no  effect 
unless,  as  many  thought,  it  added  to  their  fury  and  fierceness. 
Although  the  firemen  we're  at  work  with  both  hand-engines  and 
steamers,  while  yet  but  few  buildings  were  involved,  the  water 
they  threw  upon  the  burning  buildings  might  as  well  have  been 
as  much  oil,  for  any  effect  it  had  in  checking  the  flames.  The 
firemen  were  driven  back  from  every  point  where  they  at- 
tempted to  make  a  stand,  and  it  soon  became  evident  that  no 
efforts  of  theirs  could  check  the  progress  of  the  fire.  It  was  such 
a  fire  as  that  which  swept  Chicago  and  Boston — a  fire  as  fierce 
and  uncontrollable  as  though  belched  up  from  the  bottomless 
pits  of  the  lower  regions. 

When  it'  was  seen  that  the  fire  was  wholly  beyond  control, 
that  it  must  take  its  own  course  and  burn  its  way  out  through 
the  city,  the  wildest  confusion  ensued.  It  was  as  when  a  beaten 
army  begins  its  retreat.  All  took  what  they  could  conveniently 
carry  in  their  hands,  those  things  they  most  prized,  and  fell  back 
out  of  the  track  of  the  fire.  Men,  women,  and  children  thus 
leaving  their  homes,  and  house  after  house  being  thus  deserted, 
a  great  human  wave  was  pushed  back  on  all  sides  toward  the 
suburbs  of  the  city.  Hundreds  moved  their  goods  again  and 
again,  each  time  losing  something,  until  at  last  they  found  them- 
selves driven  far  up  on  the  open  face  of  the  mountain,  empty, 
handed,  panting  for  breath,  and  parched  with  thirst.  While  the 
whole  face  of  the  mountain  seemed  a  sea  of  fire,  with  great 
billows  tossing  to  and  fro,  the  sounds  that  reached  the  ear  were 
as  fearful  as  the  scene  spread  before  the  eye.  From  the 
armories  of  the  various  military  companies,  from  the  gunsmith 
shops  and  from  many  of  the  variety-stores,  there  came  a  constant 
roar  of  exploding  cartridges,  guns,  pistols,  fire-crackers,  bombs, 
rockets,  and  all  manner  of  fireworks,  sounding  like  the  steady 
discharge  of  small  arms  in  a  great  battle.  Amid  and  above  all 
this  din  were  heard  the  frequent  and  startling  discharges  of 
giant-powder,  gunpowder,  and  Hercules  powder,  as  building  after 
building  was  blown  up  in  various  parts  of  the  town. 


560  THE  GREA  T  FIRE- 


As  the  fire  began  to  approach  the  great  mining-works  these 
heavy  reports  became  more  frequent  and  terrific.  The  miners 
carried  into  buildings,  not  a  few  cartridges  only  of  the  powerful 
explosives  they  were  using,  but  whole  boxes  of  them,  and  when 
there  were  fired  they  seemed  to  shake  Mount  Davidson  from 
base  to  peak.  By  the  blowing  up  of  buildings,  and  by  almost 
superhuman  exertions  at  carrying  water  and  wetting  the  roofs 
and  sides  of  houses,  the  progress  of  the  fire  was  stayed  at  a  few 
important  points,  and  a  great  amount  of  valuable  property  saved 
that  would  otherwise  have  been  destroyed ;  yet,  in  the  main, 
the  flames  held  their  course  through  the  heart  of  the  town. 

Thus  in  a  few  short  hours  was  swept  away  the  best  part  of 
what  at  dawn  had  been  a  fair  city — a  city  filled  with  elegant 
and  comfortable  homes,  handsome  and  costly  public  buildings, 
large  stores,  packed  with  all  manner  of  valuable  goods,  and  mills 
and  mining-works  the  most  complete  of  the  kind  in  the  whole 
world.  All  these  were  licked  from  the  face  of  the  mountain,  and 
but  a  wilderness  of  toppling  walls  and  smoking  ruins  showed 
where  they  had  been. 

This  great  fire  was  started  in  a  low  lodging-house  kept  by  a 
woman  known  as  "  Crazy  Kate  " — Kate  Shea — by  the  breaking 
of  a  coal-oil  lamp  in  a  drunken  row,  as  is  asserted  by  those  who 
occupied  the  adjoining  houses. 

In  its  march  to  the  eastward  down  the  slope  of  the  mount- 
ain, the  Court-house  was  the  first  large  public  building  that  was 
destroyed  ;  the  building  and  rooms  of  the  Washoe  Club,  filled 
with  elegant  furniture  and  costly  paintings,  was  the  next  to  fall. 
Devouring  at  a  gulp  a  score  of  smaller  buildings,  the  Inter- 
national Hotel,  the  principal  hotel  of  the  city  and  a  huge  brick 
structure,  filled  with  stores,  saloons,  and  other  places  of  business 
on  its  first  floors,  was  soon  reached  by  the  flames  and  became 
a  volcano  of  fire.  About  the  same  time,  further  to  the  south- 
ward, the  Bank  of  California,  the  Enterprise  (newspaper)  build- 
ing, and  many  large  brick  and  stone  structures,  from  three  to 
five  stories  in  height,  were  vomiting  fire  from  every  window  and 
door  from  roof  to  basement.  Soon  Pipers  Opera  House,  a  huge 
frame  building,  like  some  great  fire-ship  was  spreading  terror 
through  the  neighborhood  ;  while  to  the  right  the  southward 
the  Methodist,  Catholic,  and  Episcopal  Churches  were  towering 


THE  GREA  T  FIRE.  561 


pillars  of  fire,  with  seas  of  fire  below  and  about  them.  To  the 
left  and  northward  the  freight  and  passenger  depots  of  the  Vir- 
ginia and  Truckee  Railroad  Company,  with  many  smaller  build- 
ings, were  pouring  great  streams  of  fire  to  the  eastward  into  the 
hoisting-works  of  the  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  Company 
which  in  turn,  with  over  a  million  feet  of  lumber,  sent  a  broad 
river  of  flame  into  and  over  the  big  mill  of  the  company — a  mill 
the  most  costly  and  complete  then  in  operation  in  any  part  of  the 
world.  Not  only  this  mill,  but  also  the  California  stamp  mill, 
near  at  hand,  was  here  swegt  away.  The  buildings  of  the  new 
"  C  and  C  "  (California  and  Consolidated  Virginia)  shaft  were 
saved  through  the  most  strenuous  exertions  of  many  miners,  and 
after  blowing  up  many  houses. 

To  the  northward  at  this  time,  the  City  Hall  and  scores  of 
large  and  costly  private  residences  were  wallowing  in  a  lake  of 
flames,  which  lake  overflowing  on  the  east,  inundated  the  several 
buildings  constituting  the  works  of  the  Ophir  Mining  Company, 
sweeping  them  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  Building  after 
building  was  hurled  hundreds  of  feet  into  the  air  to  prevent  the 
fire  reaching  these  works,  but  nothing  stayed  its  advance. 
Shattered  buildings  seemed  to  burst  into  flames  in  mid-air  and 
their  wrecks  served  but  as  trains  laid  to  lead  the  fire  more 
surely  to  the  doomed  works. 

At  times  great  whirlwinds  came  down  the  side  of-  the  mount- 
ain and  waltzed  about  in  the  midst  of  the  burning  buildings, 
carrying  spiral  columns  of  flame  and  fiery  missiles  thousands  of 
feet  into  the  air.  The  tops  of  some  of  these  pillars  of  fire  were 
seen  by  persons  fifteen  or  twenty  miles  away.  An  Indian  who 
was  on  the  opposite  side  of  Mount  Davidson,  and  on  the  west 
side  of  Washoe  Valley,  at  the  foot  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mount- 
ains, fifteen  miles  distant,  observed  one  of  these  whirlwinds  of 
fire,  which  he  said  "  looked  like  an  augur,"  and  started  for  the 
city  to  see  what  had  befallen  it.  Jonah-like  he  wanted  to  see 
whatever  trouble  there  might  be  in  store  for  the  place.  He 
reached  the  top  of  Mount  Davidson  in  time  to  see  the  churches 
all  aflame.  A  grand  view  of  the  burning  town  he  must  have 
had  from  the  top  of  the  mountain ! 

At  first,  while  but  a  few  houses  were  on  fire,  there  was  heard 
some  wailing  among  the  half-dressed  women  and  children,  but 


562  THE  GREA  T  FIRE. 


as  block  after  block  became  involved,  the  ruin  being  wrought 
was  on  a  scale  so  grand  that  the  excitement  and  terror  of  the 
scene  forbade  all  thought  of  anything  so  small  that  tears  could 
prove  a  solace  for  its  loss. 

When  all  was  over,  the  people  for  a  time  seemed  stupified,  or 
rather  drunk,  with  the  excitement  of  the  day,  and  it  was  almost 
night  before  many  of  them  remembered  that  they  were  without 
homes.  All  the  houses  left  standing  were  soon  filled;  many 
young  men,  who  could  do  so,  went  by  rail  to  neighboring  towns, 
while,  for  one  or  two  nights,  persons  camped  out  on  the  sides  of 
the  hills — the  school-houses  and  other  public  buildings  remaining 
being  filled  to  overflowing.  The  next  morning  after  the  fire,  relief 
came  pouring  in  from  all  quarters,  for  over  two  thousand  buildings 
were  destroyed,  and  hundreds  of  people  were  left  homeless  and 
destitute.  Carson  City  sent  two  or  three  car-loads  of  provisions-, 
ready  cooked,  early  the  next  morning  after  the  fire,  to  supply 
the  immediate  wants  of  the  sufferers,  and  San  Francisco  and 
other  towns  and  cities  of  California,  at  once  telegraphed  money 
and  started  clothing,  blankets,  bedding,  and  provisions  over  the 
Sierras,  by  express.  A  Relief  Committee  was  organized  in  the 
city,  and  similar  committees  in  San  Francisco  and  other  towns 
and  cities  of  the  Pacific  Coast,  and  soon  all  the  sufferers  were 
made  as  comfortable  as  shelter,  food,  and  clothing  could  make 
them.  All  the  towns  of  Nevada  and  California  contributed  as 
generously  as  though  their  own  people  had  been  in  distress,  and 
San  Francisco  was  untiring  in  her  efforts  for  the  relief  of  the 
sufferers  as  though  the  people  of  Virginia  were  her  own  sons 
and  daughters.  But  two  persons  are  known  to  have  perished 
in  the  flames,  though  there  were  scores  of  narrow  escapes. 
After  the  fire  two  or  three  men  were  killed  by  falling  walls. 

The  insurance  on  the  property  amounted  to  $2,500,000,  and 
this,  with  what  many  had  left  in  money,  stocks,  and  other  kinds 
of  property,  joined  with  stout  hearts  and  unlimited  faith  in  the 
inexhaustible  wealth  of  the  mines,  gave  all  courage  to  set  to 
work  at  re-establishing  themselves. 

To  rebuild  the  town  was  the  one  thought  of  all.  The  next 
morning  after  the  fire  the  work  of  cooling  down  and  clearing 
away  the  ruins  of  buildings  was  in  progress  in  hundreds  of 
places;  lumber  was  coming  in  by  rail  and  was  being  hauled  up 


THE  ORE  A  T  FIRE.  563 


on  the  still  smoking  ground.  From  that  time  forward  the  work 
went  on  almost  day  and  night,  and  in  all  kinds  of  weather.  A 
week  after  the  fire  a  tornado  blew  down  and  demolished  a  great 
number  of  the  newly  erected  and  partially  completed  wooden 
buildings,  but  the  moment  the  storm  ceased  the  wrecks  were 
cleared  away  and  building  was  again  resumed.  The  mining 
companies  whose  works  were  destroyed  showed  undaunted 
spirit  and  indomitable  energy.  The  Consolidated  Virginia 
Mining  Company's  hoisting-works  and  mill,  and  the  California 
Mining  Company's  stamp  mill,  were  a  loss  of  over  a  million 
dollars  at  one  fell  swoop. 

The  Consolidated  Virginia  hoisting  work's  assay-office,  1,250,- 
ooo  feet  of  lumber  and  timbers,  800  cords  of  wood  and  the  stock 
of  mining  supplies  on  hand  was  a  loss  of  $800,000. 

The  loss  by  the  burning  of  the  Consolidated  Virginia  mill 
was  $431,000;  battery  mill  of  the  California  Company,  $80,000; 
hoisting-works  and  building  of  the  Ophir  Company  $150,000;  a 
total  loss  to  the  bonanza  mines  of  $1,461,000.  Large  as  were  the 
losses  of  the  several  mining  companies  they  had  hundreds  of 
men  at  work  the  day  after  the  fire  at  clearing  away  the  still 
burning  ruins  preparatory  to  immediate  rebuilding.  There  was 
not  a  moment's  hesitation. 

In  November  the  Consolidated  Virginia  Company  declared 
their  usual  dividend  (No.  19),  of  $10  per  share  on  their  capital 
stock,  aggregating  $1,080,000 ;  and  again  in  December  a  dividend 
(No  .20),  amounting  to  the  same  great  sum  was  declared.  Thus 
did  this  Croesus  of  mining  companies  pay  out  to  stockholders 
the  princely  sum  of  $2,160,000  during  the  time  they  were 
engaged  in  the  costly  business  of  rebuilding  their  works  and 
filling  them  with  expensive  machinery.  That  they  could  do 
this  must  seem  incredible  to  persons  unacquainted  with  the 
almost  inexhaustible  deposits  of  rich  ore  in  the  bonanza  mines. 

The  withholding  of  one  of  these  dividends  would  have  fur- 
nished more  than  enough  money  to  have  rebuilt  both  hoisting- 
works  and  mill,  but  having  millions  in  sight  in  the  lower  levels 
of  the  mine  which  could  be  rapidly  taken  out  when  once  the 
works  were  again  running,  the  company  gave  the  stockholders 
their  regular  dividends,  just  as  though  nothing  had  happened. 
The  California  Company  had  both  their  stamp-mill  and  their 


564:  THE  GREA  T  FIRE. 


pan-mill  almost  completed  and  in  a  short  time,  but  for  the  fire, 
would  have  been  extracting  ore.  Their  pan-mill  (an  improve- 
ment on  the  big  mill  of  the  Consolidated  Virginia  Company), 
one  of  the  finest  in  existence,  was  saved,  being  nearly  half  a 
mile  to  the  eastward  of  the  mine  and  the  scene  of  the  fire.  The 
shafts  of  the  Ophir  and  Consolidated  Virginia  mines  were 
blocked  up  and  filled  in  with  earth  about  their  mouths  when  it 
was  seen  that  the  buildings  covering  them  were  doomed  to 
destruction,  yet  the  fire  worked  its  way  some  distance  down  the 
latter  and  was  with  difficulty  extinguished.  Had  the  fire 
reached  the  immense  masses  of  timbers  in  the  underground 
works  it  would  perhaps  have  gone  through  the  whole  of  the 
mines  on  the  northern  part  of  the  Comstock  range,  when  the 
loss  would  have  been  many  times  greater  than  that  of  all  that 
was  destroyed  on  the  surface,  counting  in  all  that  was  swept 
away  in  the  town  as  well  as  on  and  about  the  mines. 

In  San  Francisco  the  wildest  excitement  prevailed  on  Califor- 
nia Steeet  and,  indeed,  in  all  parts  of  the  city  as  soon  as  it 
become  generally  known  that  a  great  fire  was  raging  in  Virginia 
City,  and  that  the  mining-works  were  in  danger.  Those  who 
first  received  news  of  the  fire  did  not  make  it  public,  but  began 
selling  their  stocks  on  the  street.  Ophir,  which  closed  at  $52.75 
on  Monday  evening,  October  25,  was  offered,  Tuesday  morning, 
October  26,  at  $50,  and  considerable  amounts  of  the  stock  were 
sold  at  this  figure.  As  the  news  spread  all  stocks  fell,  and  before 
the  panic  ended  Ophir  sold  as  low  as  $36  per  share,  but  before 
night  rallied  to  $41.  Thousands  upon  thousands  of  shares  of 
stocks  were  sold  on  California  Steeet  (the  grand  rallying  place 
for  dealers  in  stocks)  before  the  Stock-Boards  opened,  the 
street  being  a  surging  mass  of  pale-faced  and  excited  humanity. 
In  the  San  Francisco  Board,  when  the  calling  of  the  list  of  stocks 
began  the  place  instantly  became  a  perfect  bedlam. 

In  the  evening,  when  the  full  extent  of  the  damage  done  by 
the  fire  had  reached  San  Francisco,  the  people  became  quiet 
and  began  to  gain  courage.  They  reasoned  that  although  the 
surface-works  of  the  leading  companies  had  been  destroyed  the 
mines  were  still  there  and  as  rich  as  the  day  before  the  fire ; 
that  the  resumption  of  the  extraction  of  ore  was  only  a  matter 
of  time  and  all  would  be  going  on  as  usual  in  from  forty  to  sixty 


THE  GREAT  FIRE.  565 


days.  Finally  all  retired  for  the  night,  greatly  reassured,  and 
the  terrible  panic  was  over.  The  people  of  San  Francisco  were 
correct  in  their  estimate  of  the  energy  of  the  men  who  were  at 
the  head  of  the  affairs  of  the  mining  companies — Col.  James  G. 
Fair  and  John  Mackey,  of  the  Consolidated  Virginia  and 
California,  and  Capt.  S.  T.  Curtis,  of  the  Ophir.  In  less  than 
thirty  days  new  buildings  stood  in  the  place  of  those  that  had 
been  burned,  both  at  the  Consolidated  Virginia  and  Ophir 
mines ;  and  on  Thanksgiving  Day,  just  thirty  days  after  the  fire, 
the  hoisting  engine  of  the  latter  was  started  up  amid  the  rejoic- 
ings of  some  hundreds  of  persons  who  had  collected  at  the 
works,  and  (merely  to  be  able  to  say  that  it  was  done)  a  few 
car-loads  of  ore  were  hoisted  from  the  1,300  foot  level,  though 
the  business  of  regularly  hoisting  ore  was  not  resumed  until 
after  the  starting  of  the  large  pump  and  the  proper  draining  of 
the  mine,  some  time  afterwards. 

Before  the  expiration  of  the  sixty  days  allowed  (by  close 
calculators  at  the  time  of  the  fire)  for  the  rebuilding  of  the 
Consolidated  Virginia  hoisting-works,  they  were  not  only  put  up 
in  better  style  in  all  respects  than  before  the  fire,  but  they  were 
again  taking  out  ore  at  the  rate  of  over  $1,500,000  per  month. 
The  Ophir  Company  were  also  soon  after  hoisting  ore  as  before 
the  fire,  and  ere  long  the  work  of  extracting  the  vast  stores  of 
immensely  rich  ore  (hitherto  untouched)  standing  in  great 
squares  in  the  mine  of  the  California  Company  was  begun, 
giving  full  employment  to  the  splendid  mill  of  that  company 
and,  with  the  yield  from  the  Consolidated  Virginia,  adding 
$3,000,000  per  month  to  the  hard-money  wealth  of  the  world. 

In  order  to  guard  against  a  recurrence  of  such  a  calamity  as 
that  described  in  this  chapter,  the  people  of  Virginia  City  at 
once  set  about  the  construction  of  a  series  of  large  reservoirs 
upon  the  side  of  the  mountain  above  their  town  which,  with  a 
proper  system  of  mains  and  hydrants,  should  afford  them  better 
protection  against  fire  than  they  had  ever  before  enjoyed.  In 
sixty  days  after  the  fire  the  principal  streets  running  through  the 
burnt  districts  were  again  lined  with  business  houses,  the 
majority  of  which  were  of  a  better  class  than  those  destroyed, 
and  dwellings  once  more  covered  what  a  few  weeks  before  a 
good  deal  resembled  the  bottomless  pit.  The  gap  left  in  the 


566  THE  GREA  T  FIRE. 


city  by  the  fire  was  again  filled,  and  was  not  readily  distinguished 
by  strangers,  except  by  its  striking  resemblance  to  a  new  patch 
placed  on  a  pair  of  old  pantaloons. 

But  for  the  Virginia  and  Trucker  Railroad  all  this  work  could 
not  have  been  done  in  a  year.  Indeed  it  would  have  taken  the 
whole  winter,  with  all  the  teams  that  could  be  pressed  into  the 
service,  to  have  hauled  from  the  mills  in  the  mountains  sufficient 
lumber  to  rebuild  the  mining-works  alone.  Nearly  all  of  those 
whose  homes  were  destroyed  would  have  been  obliged  to  seek 
shelter  in  California,  and  it  would  have  been  a  difficult  matter 
to  bring  in  enough  provisions  and  other  supplies  to  comfortably 
keep  such  as  remained  in  those  parts  of  the  city  left  intact. 

The  Railroad  Company  not  only  poured  into  tire  city  an 
unbroken  stream  of  lumber,  timbers,  and  supplies  of  all  kinds 
for  the  use  of  the  mining  companies  and  citizens,  but  at  the 
the  same  time  did  a  vast  amount  of  work  for  themselves.  Their 
depot  buildings,  trestle-work,  bridges,  switches,  the  timbers  of  a 
tunnel,  track,  and,  in  short,  all  of  their  improvements  in  the 
city  were  destroyed.  All  these  were  replaced  and  at  the  same 
time  all  the  other  work  done.  Trains  ran  day  and  night — as 
many  as  forty-five  trains  passing  over  this  road  some  days — and 
thus  was  the  great  work  of  rebuilding  so  speedily  accomplished 
that  a  new  town  seemed  to  spring  up  out  of  the  ground. 


THE  END. 


APPENDIX. 


MEXICAN   MINING    TERMS. 


Agua — Water. 

Acetones — Shares  in  a  mine. 

Ahogar—  T.o  gouge  out  a  mine  by 
working  narrow  and  only  in  rich 
places. 

Ademada—  Timbered. 

Abonar—  To  pay  a  debt  by  instal- 
ments. 

A  zogue — Quicksilver. 

Aire — Air. 

Bonanza — A  large  and  rich  body  of 
ore — prosperity. 

Borrasca — Barren  rock — bad  luck — 
adversity, 

Bartolina — A  chamber  cut  out  in  a 
mine  in  which  to  keep  tools  and 
stores. 

Barranca — A  precipice. 

Barretero — A  miner. 

Barrcna — A  drill. 

Batea — A    wooden    bowl    used    in 

washing  auriferous  earth. 

Buena  sac  a — Doing  well. 

Contro-pozo — An  "  upraise  "  to  meet  a 
winze, 

Contra  Mina — An  underground  con- 
nection. 

Charqueo  interior— -To  lead  water  to  a 
drain. 

Cavatto—A.  "horse" — a  block  of  bar- 
ren rock  in  the  midst  of  a  body  of 
ore. 

Cinta — A  streak  of  ore. 


Chorrerra — A  cave — the  caving  in  of 
a  mine. 

Cavassos — Borings — drillings. 

Cavasal — A  cross-piece — timber. 

Calabrote — A  large  rope. 

Cabreste — A  hair  rope — a  line. 

Canada — A  deep  ravine,  gulch. 

Cuarzo — Quartz. 

Cascajo —  Gravel. 

De  Cielo — The  roof— working  over- 
head. 

De  Pied  or  a  Pique — Beneath  the 
floor — sinking,  or  working  down. 

Derotada — Gutted,  spoiled  and  aban- 
doned. 

Dispacho  or  Dispensa — An  ore-house. 

Destajo — A  contract. 

El  Cordon — A  ridge  or  spur  of  a 
mountain. 

El  Creston — A  crest  or  outcropping. 

El  Rumbo — The  course. 

El Manto — (mantada) — Aflat  deposit. 

Escabar — To  strip  a  claim  on  the 
surface  merely, 

El  Tajo  abierto — An  open  cut. 

El  Socabon — An  adit. 

El  Tiro  general—  The  main  shaft. 

El  Crucero — A  cross-cut. 

El  Fronton — An  ore  breast. 

El  Alto—1\&  hanging  wall. 

El  Abajo—  The  foot  wall. 

El  Patio— -The  level  space  at  the 
mouth  of  a  mine  or  tunnel. 


567 


568 


APPENDIX. 


Echardero — A  platform  for  weighing, 
sorting,   or    packing    ore    on.     A 
Patio  of  a  mine. 
En  Frutos — In  ore. 
En  Borra  (Emborrescade,  Borrascd) — 
Not  in  pay  ore — "  petered  out " — 
applied  to  the  barrenness  of  veins, 
not  to  dead  work,  as  a  tunnel  run 
to  reach  a  vein. 
Fundido — Filled  with  water. 
Fueros — Special  privileges. 
Guardas  de  Labor — Roof  and  walls  of 

a  mine  in  general. 
Grantio — Granite. 
Hilos — Threads  of  ore. 
Hundido — A  settling  or  sinking. 
Las  Sierras — Mountains  or  mountain 

ranges. 

La  Gttia — A  guide,  or  the  float  rock. 
La  Recuesta — The  dip. 
Las  Medias — The  boundary  lines  of 
a  claim  as  marked  by  Las  Escatas, 
stakes,  or  Estacada,  staked  off. 
Las  Guardas  Rayas — Monuments     of 

wood  or  stone. 

La  Demasia  or  Hueco — The  unclaim- 
ed ground  between  two  claims. 
La  Bocca-vieja — The  mouth — the  old 

mouth. 

La  Obra — The  tunnel — the  work. 
.La  Lumbrera — The  air  shaft. 
Las  Canones — The  drifts. 
La  Cata — A    small    pit — a    "  coyote 

hole." 

La  Tabla — A  stope. 
La  Patia-^-K  narrow    footpath    in  a 

mine. 

Las  Respaldas — The  walls  of  a  mine. 
Los  Caminos — The  travelled  roads  in 

a  mine  of  any  kind. 
Los  Planes — The    deepest  workings 

or  bottom  of  a  mine. 
Los  Pilares — The  pillars  of  a  mine — 
place  of  timbers — to  "  dispilar"  a 
mine  is  to  dig  down  the  pillars. 
Las  Desagttes — The  drains  of  a  mine. 


Las  Escateras — The  notched  stepping 

poles  or  ladders  in  a  mine. 
La  Tronada — The  rocks  thrown  down 

by  a  blast. 

Los  Llavis — Beams,  timbers. 
Latones — Small  poles 
La  Quebrada — A  ravine. 
Maderas — All  kinds  of  wood  used  in 

a  mine  for  any  purpose. 
Mecati — A  small  line. 
Minero — A  miner. 
Nivel—h.  level. 
Obsa  muerta — Dead  work. 
Orcones — Forked  poles. 
Ore— Gold. 

Oro  en  polvo — Gold  dust. 
Oro  en  pasta,  bruto   or   mrgen— Gold 

bullion. 
Presa — A  dam. 
Pileta — A  sump  or  tank, 
Paradera — Sluice-gates. 
Pico — A  pick. 
Pala — A  shovel. 
Polvora — Powder. 
Plata— Silver. 
Plata  virgen  or  brulo — A  rude  mass 

of  silver — native  silver. 
Pizarra — Slate  rock. 
Puertas — When    a    vein   pinches-— 

"  cap  rock." 
Pied  direcho — A  stud. 
Pedregal — a  stony  place 
Roca — A  roek 
Risco — A  steep  rock. 
Reata — A  rope  for   tying  mules  or 

horses. 

Suffocants — Hot,  bad  air. 
Terrero — A  pile  of  waste  rock. 
Un  Mineral — A  mining  district. 
Una  Veta — A  lode  or  ledge — a  true 

fissure  vein. 

Una  Veta  tapada—A.  "  blind "  ledge 
or  lode — a  lode  that  is  covered 
with  soil. 

Una  Vena — A  vein — a  narrow  seam 
or  streak. 


APPENDIX. 


569 


Una  Pertinenda — A  claim  on  a  lode. 
(By  the  Mexican  mining  law  it  is 
200  Varas  ie  Medin — 200  yards 
running  measure.  A  vara  is  33 
inches.) 

Un  Pozo — A  shaft,  pit,  or  winze. 

Un  Labor — Any  part  of  a  mine  from 
which  ore  is  being  extracted, 

Un  Claro — Any  worked  out  portion 
of  a  mine, 

Un  Tapextle — A  landing  or  platform 
in  a  shaft — a  gallery. 

Un  Quarion — A  slip  or  "  fault "  which 
cuts  off  the  ore. 

Un  Clavo — A  chimney  of  ore. 

Un  Amparo — A  permit  from  the  Gov- 
ernment to  quit  work  on  a  mine 
for  any  time  beyond  the  customary 
four  months  in  each  year. 


Un  Ojo—K  "pocket." 

Una  Bonanza — A  big  rich  strike. 

Una  Caida — A  fall — a  slide. 

Un  Barreno — A  drill-hole. 

Un  Cohele — A  blast. 

Un  Tequio — A  task — each  cleaner's 
pile  of  ore. 

Una  Adema — A  set  of  timbers. 

Un  Malacate — A  horse  whim. 

Una  Manesuela,  Argans,  Hicho  bueno 
— A  windlass 

Una  Soga — A  native  rope. 

Un  Negocio — An  enterprise,  transac- 
tion, or  business. 

Veta  Cata — A  new  vein. 

Vapor — Foul  air. 

Ventilation — Ventilation. 

Ventilar—To  Ventilate. 


PUBLISHED    BY    THEg 


American    Publishing   Co. 


COIVIST. 


"BLUE    LAWS-TRUE    AND    FALSE, 

f  JTEDITED  BT|! 

3.  HAMMOND  TRUMBULL. 


"ADVENTURES  OF  TOM    SAWYER, 

By    MARK    TWAIN. 


:'MY   WINTER    ON   THE    NILE," 

By  CHARLES  DUDLEY  WARNER. 


'- 

By  BRET  HARTE. 

" 


TELE    Bia    B  O  3ST  ^L  IST  Z  ^  ,' 

(THE   SILVER   VOLUME.) 

By    DAN    DE  QUILLE. 

WITH   AN   INTRODUCTION   BY    MARK    TWAIN. 


"BIBLE    LANDS    ILLUSTRATED," 

By  HENRY  C.  FISH,  D.  D. 

1ST  AGENTS  WANTED  for  all  of  these  books,  in  every  cit; 
and  town.  Largest  Commissions  paid.  Being  the  most  popular  book 
in  the  market,  they  are  decidedly  the  best  for  an  Agent  to  work  on 
Send  for  circulars.  Address, 

AMERICAN  PUBLISHING  CO.,  Hartford,  Conn. 

A.  L.  BANCROFT  &  CO.,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 


RETURN  TO:      CIRCULATION  DEPARTMENT 
198  Main  Stacks 


LOAN  PERIOD     1 
Home  Use 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS. 

Renewals  and  Recharges  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  the  due  date. 
Books  may  be  renewed  by  calling  642-3405. 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW. 


FORM  NO.  DD6 
50M    6-00 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  BERKELEY 
Berkeley,  California  94720-6000 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below, 
or  on  the  date  to  which  renewed.  Renewals  only: 

Tel.  No.  642-3405 

Renewals  may  be  made  4  days  parlor  to  date  due. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


-fi  RM  6  A 

RETURN     CIRCULATION  DEPARTMENT 

TO— ^      202  Main  Library 


LOAN  PERIOD  1 
HOME  USE 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 

Renewals  and  Recharges  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  the  due  date. 

Books  may  be  Renewed  by  calling     642-3405. 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


AuiO  DISC.  «flV  1 

^EP  3  0  1997 

NOV  1  2  1989 

**  u  f^^f 

t>c   CD 

«  1  8  2( 

*J0fl^  C\ 

\ 

JAN  QK  1990 

PiRCU'  ATION 

Jfl     I  >fft 

JUL  0  1  fiffifl    9 

1 

SENT  ON  ILL 

ADD    1    1    1U9S 

ArK  '  i   W3° 

Uf*   RFRk'FI  FY 

•  w«  DcnrviZLBCT 

FORM  NO.  DD6, 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  BERKELEY 

BERKELEY,  CA  94720 

®$ 


GENERAL  LIBRARY  -  U.C.  BERKELEY 


BD0073SM1S 


2  5. 

is 7 7 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


